Faking and Loving
by Yuri Hannah
Summary: What started as a fake relationship between these two awkward friends may turn into something more. Gray just has to stop being in-denial and Erza, well...she still has some issues to settle with her past love. Lucy's busy helping with other people's love lives, oblivious to someone else's affection for her. Gray/Erza/Jellal, hints of Nalu and a mix of other love triangles. AU.
1. Prologue - The Fight

_A/N: This is only my second published fanfic and I'm still new to this writing thing but this idea just won't leave my head. Cliche "pretend to be boyfriend/girlfriend" story is cliche, but I'm gonna give it a shot anyway._

 _Warning! There will be a lot of possible one-sided relationships revealed in future chapters (I'm a sucker for one-sided ships for some reason) but this story will mainly focus on Gray and Erza. And so it doesn't get too serious, some fluffy Natsu/Lucy on the side (because NaLu is OTP goals)._

 _Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail_

* * *

 _ **Faking and Loving**_

 _ **Prologue**_

* * *

 _Two years ago..._

Fifteen year-old Gray Fullbuster honestly had enough of Erza Scarlet.

Seriously, what shoved up her ass and got stuck there? She was so freaking frustrating!

All he wanted to do was to practice some basketball to get into Fairy Academy's basketball team, make a name for himself, grab the attention of everyone and show off how freaking awesome he was compared to Natsu Dragneel, his pink haired of a moronic friend/rival.

He and Erza were childhood friends for god sakes. They had been friends for eight years already! Why couldn't his scarlet-haired friend support his dream of becoming the best player in all of Fiore? Why does she have to keep forcing her stupid ideals down his throat?

" _I don't want to study! Natsu doesn't want to either but he's just too scared to tell you that! Guess what? I'm not!"_

" _Basketball will get you nowhere in life. Focus on your studies. Look at how much Natsu's improved after I tutored him. Your grades wouldn't have been bad if you actually attended study group sessions with me and Natsu."_

" _I'm only fifteen years old, just got into high school! I can study all I want when I'm a senior!"_

" _You'll be too tired to want to study if you're focused on scoring touchdowns."_

" _Baskets! We shoot baskets! And studying isn't everything!"_

" _It is when you're a student. Even Natsu agrees with me."_

" _You're FORCING him to agree with you!"_

" _Because I'm right. I only want what's best for my friends."_

" _I'm the one who's right here! It's about me, not you!"_

" _Oh? Then I challenge you to a fight. If I win, you have to agree with me and admit that I'm superior to you in front of all our friends."_

" _F-Fine. If I win, you have to promise you won't ever butt in my business and let me do whatever the hell I want!"_

Needless to say, Gray Fullbuster lost straight away after holding out for thirty seconds.

He didn't know what got over him, accepting a challenge from Erza all of a sudden. It was painfully obvious to the whole school that Erza Scarlet's strength was a force to be reckoned with, despite her being a girl.

An attractive girl that he could no longer look the same way ever again ever since that _incident._

Okay seriously, how does a fifteen year old girl have breasts that… _developed_? And her long, scarlet hair was like silk when Gray accidentally touched it that one time. And it smelled really nice, like mild strawberries -

" _You have a crush on Erza don't you?"_

" _T-That's just...just no way!"_

Gray lightly slapped himself.

Cana was an idiot. Erza was just a big bully, always threatening people around her if they didn't do things her way, especially Gray and Natsu.

She wasn't a _girl_.

Gray was supposed to admit his defeat and that Erza was right in front of their friends that day but he didn't think things could change so drastically.

He was challenged by Natsu in a one-on-one basketball match after school that day, and all their friends came to see the match that was held in the gym.

Cana, Loke, Mirajane, Lisanna, Elfman, Evergreen, Bixlow, Fried, Levy, Jet, Droy, heck even Laxus came to see the battle between Natsu and Gray!

The only person that wasn't present was Erza.

Gray dismissed it, thinking that Erza probably didn't want to waste time watching him play when she could be studying. As long as Natsu and Gray weren't physically battling it out, he wouldn't have to worry about her wrath.

When they had finally ended the game with Gray winning one point over Natsu, he of course felt like he had a right to brag about it.

"Take that, Natsu! I was always better than you!"

"What was that you crazy porn star?! I let you win!" Their foreheads were bumping against one another.

"Yeah, right!" Gray scoffed. "I even beat Laxus yesterday! So I could easily beat _you_!"

Natsu fumed. "A-At least I'm smarter than _you_!"

"What was that?!"

"I got higher grades than you!"

"Only because _you're_ scared of Erza! I'm not!"

"Yeah, right! Stop pretending you ain't scared of her when you totally wet your pants the last time you lost!"

"That was when we were ten, idiot! At least I'm not letting a bully like Erza control my life like you! You can keep kissing the ground Erza walks on but I'm not doing that anymore!" Gray shouted.

All of them were silent. They all looked at Gray with wide eyes, surprised at how genuinely angry he was. Usually his fights with Natsu were never this serious. What had gotten into Gray?

Natsu had backed up a bit from Gray when he shouted, also surprised at his friends' outburst.

Gray was panting. He also didn't know what had gotten into him but he was really sick of all of it. Why were they all looking at him like they were so surprised? Surely he wasn't the only one who thought Erza was practically controlling their lives?

Or maybe they were just surprised that someone had actually pointed it out for once.

Cana rushed up to her raven-haired friend and hit him on the shoulder. She smiled teasingly, hoping to ease the tension. "What are you saying, Gray? That's no way to talk about your lucky charm~"

The others look confusedly at him, as if asking him "what does that mean?"

No one noticed how Laxus who sat quietly during the whole ordeal raise an eyebrow, as if he knew something no one else did.

Gray wasn't sure he was red because of anger or embarrassment. It was anger, he was sure. He turned to Cana, his face practically steaming.

"WHAT LUCKY CHARM?!" He shouted, effectively making Cana stunned. "Erza's only bad luck ever since she came, that's what!"

"Gray – "

"She thinks she can boss people all she wants just because she's a bit stronger than us. So what? And everything she says is right! Everyone else is wrong!"

"Gray, stop –"

"You guys feel the same way don't you? She's constantly telling us what to do. I break a few rules, so what? It's not like I'm hurting anybody! Who does she think she is?! She's an egoistic bully and a bad temper to go with it!"

"I thought I was being a friend."

Everyone turned around to see the source of that almost emotionless voice. It was indeed, Erza Scarlet herself.

The scarlet-haired girl in uniform stood there, an unreadable look on her face. She walked up to Gray, her shoes making slight tapping sounds as it hit the floor.

"Erza! I thought you said you had something to do after school." Mirajane said, hoping that things would not get out of hand. Lisanna shook her head at her sister nervously. Was it just her, or did Erza's eyes look a bit... _red_?

"It was already settled."

Gray had no idea she would be here. How long was she there? Did she hear everything he had to say?

But being unable to read her emotions, and stressed from the looks that were given to him by his friends, only made him say things he had buried deep down. They were looking at him as if he was _wrong_. Even Natsu!

"As usual, being such an immature kid like yourself, you wouldn't have the guts to say these things to me face to face." Erza said frowning. "You'd rather talk about me behind my back."

"I'm not an immature kid! Stop treating me like one."

"You have yet to prove me wrong."

Their friends looked at each other nervously. Natsu opted to stay quiet, frowning at Gray himself.

"If you thought you were being a friend, then you suck at it." Gray said as he walked closer to face her. He looked straight in her eyes in a serious manner she didn't think he was capable of. He was internally glad that he had managed to gain a bit taller. Now they were finally the same height. And they were only a few centimeters from each other.

"What?"

"Friends don't treat each other like shit! Friends don't force each other to do things they don't want to do! Friends support each other's dreams!" Gray shouted at her.

"You honestly want me to believe you want to become the best basketball player in Fiore? Don't think I don't know you! You just want to be popular!" Erza retaliated, still in that strict mode of hers she was so used to.

"What's wrong with being popular playing something I like?! It's my dream! I'm not hurting anyone!"

"It's not your true dream is it?"

"What do you know about my true dream?!"

Erza was quiet at his outburst. She looked like she was about to say something but opted not to. Gray was panting already, and he felt like a burst of energy burst into him seeing Erza looking like she was backing down. For once.

"I'm sick and tired of you treating me like shit okay?! I'm not a kid anymore, I know what I want! I don't need you to tell me what's best!"

"But – "

"Everyone else thinks the same thing! You think we like you bossing us around, forcing us to follow the rules all the damn time. Well guess what? We don't!"

"Gray, that's not true!" Mira denied, glancing the slowly dejected look on Erza's face. But Gray didn't seem to notice.

Lisanna was at Erza's side. "He doesn't mean that, Erza!" She said forcing a smile to hopefully ease the redhead, who was clenching her fists.

"Gray, you better shut up now." Cana whispered harshly. She looked towards the other guys for help. But they were looked nervous and were strangely quiet throughout all this. Did they actually think like Gray too?

"No, let him talk." Erza said her lips in a straight line.

Gray was on fire now. "How long do you expect me to handle your rage at every little wrong thing we do? Every rule we break?! We're just fooling around, there's no actual harm done, but you're getting mad as if we were on crack!"

Erza clenched her fists harder. She was trembling now, not that Gray was in his right mind to actually notice.

"You think I like you always butting in when Natsu and I fight? You think I'm okay with you practically cracking my skull against his every time you force us to stop fighting?! Natsu's an ass but at least he treats me as an equal. You're always treating people as if they're below you! You take pride when you beat me and leave me embarrassed, my own pride being stepped on! You call that a friend?!"

"T-That's –"

"- I know what's best for me. If I say I don't wanna study, then I don't have to! _**You're not my mom, or my sister or anything!"**_

It was so difficult to describe the shock that reverberated through Erza at his cutting words. Her eyes were wide with unshed tears. Her trembling fists were so tightly clenched, she was afraid that she might have drawn blood. Her lips were in a straight line and she was painfully aware of how hot and sweaty she had become.

"You're a sorry excuse for a friend **.** _ **I hate you!"**_

As soon as the those poisonous words left his mouth, Gray knew he was going to regret it some day.

What was a long friendship of eight years between an initially quiet and socially awkward scarlet-haired girl and a proud, yet friendly raven-haired boy were reduced to almost nothing in that instant.


	2. The Curse

_A/N: This is the real first chapter. Hope you guys like it!_

 _Disclaimer:_ _I do not own Fairy Tail. It belongs to the genius that is Hiro Mashima-sensei._

* * *

 _"If you're gonna get her to be your fake girlfriend, you can't ask her for permission first."_

 _"Then?"_

 _Cana just smirked. "I have an idea, but first, you've gotta promise yourself something."_

 _Gray raised an eyebrow. Promise myself? "Are you sure it's not something I gotta promise you?"_

 _"Nah...I wouldn't care either way. It's just a warning."_

 _"Now you got me curious." Gray was getting impatient._

 _"Make sure you don't fall for her."_

* * *

 _ **Faking and Loving**_

 _ **Chapter 1**_

* * *

 _Two years later_

 _At Fairy Hills_

Erza Scarlet was always known as a woman with very little patience when one did not obey her order the first time round.

"Lucy, wake up! We'll be late for breakfast."

The blonde-haired girl in question was still wrapped up in her blanket, refusing to greet the morning sunshine. She was mumbling a few words, which Erza was sure some sort of excuse to skip breakfast to enjoy a little more time sleeping.

That wouldn't do.

"LUCY!"

Lucy Heartfilia immediately sat up with a start and wide awake. She turned to her left to see her new friend/roommate with a stern expression as always.

"Erza! You almost gave me a heart attack!" Lucy complained.

"You should've woken up the first time." Erza responded.

"Erza, I really need some extra sleep. I'll just skip breakfast. You go on to the dining hall without me."

"One does not skip breakfast, Lucy. It is bad for health." Erza reasoned. "Sleeping too much isn't good either."

Lucy sighed. Ever since she befriended Erza a few weeks since her transfer to Fairy Academy, she had quickly learned that the scarlet-haired young woman was a woman of high discipline and that she did not back down from her own reasoning.

"Erza," Lucy began gently," I'm not sleeping too much. If anything, I'm getting less sleep because you keep the lights on till 3AM to study, and I can't fall sleep unless it's dark."

Erza was quiet and Lucy took it as a good sign since her roommate didn't argue with her about it and was actually considering Lucy's reasoning.

"I'm sorry. I had no idea."

YES! Lucy couldn't help breathe a sigh of relief since it actually took her a lot of courage to argue with Erza's reasoning.

It had been happening ever since she moved in Fairy Hills, the all-female dorms in Fairy Academy two weeks ago. Erza Scarlet was her first female friend since her transfer, and she had been ecstatic that Erza had offered to become roommates.

But from the first night, Lucy had been unable to sleep, with Erza keeping the lights on in the room to study. At first, Lucy thought it was a one-time thing, but apparently she learned Erza Scarlet was Fairy Academy's top student and she had a reputation to uphold. She studied till 3AM every night, and while Lucy was amazed that she was friends with such a hardworking genius, she couldn't bring herself to stay that her studying was the reason Lucy had such a hard time sleeping.

She couldn't actually just tell a student to stop studying now, could she?

But with two weeks of lack of sleep, Lucy managed to force herself to have courage and just tell Erza what was bothering her.

"It's okay, really. What if we get you a study lamp? There'd be enough light just to study in the dark, and I can catch on my beauty sleep," Lucy suggested.

"I'll think about it." Erza said before she left the room quietly.

 _I didn't hurt her feelings, did I?_

"Erza! Wait up, I'll get ready!"

* * *

Gray Fullbuster woke up that Monday morning feeling incredibly cranky.

He turned over his bedside to see that the clock had already struck 8AM, and realized with horror that he would miss breakfast and be late for class. Scrambling up to get ready, he noticed that his roommate wasn't there, and had probably gone off to breakfast without even waking him up.

 _Damn, I'm gonna kill that pink-haired freak when I get my hands on him..._

He was too late when he got to the dining hall for breakfast, as all the food was cleared and he left for school that morning incredibly hungry.

Outside Fairy Academy's male dorm, a bunch of girls' were already waiting at the main gate to greet him. As soon as his handsome face was plain in sight, the girls immediately squealed and waved towards him.

"Good morning, Gray-san!"

"Gray-kun, good morning."

"Gray, you look amazing as ever!"

"Gray-san, is it okay if we walk to class together?"

Gray did not have any time for this.

Usually he would politely greet back the girls on his way to class. Although he had no interest in dating these girls whatsoever, he took great pride in being the most popular guy in Fairy Academy.

But he was late, and cranky, especially thinking about the night before. Sneaking out of the dorms past curfew was something he did regularly, sometimes to just hang around far from the school and find a good place to smoke, and other times to pick-up older women.

He was on a date with a gorgeous hot woman last night, and he would have gotten the chance to take it further if it weren't for her jealous ex-boyfriend.

He didn't want to show up to school with bruises the next morning, so he fled. Gray was lucky that he was able to slip in-and-out of the dorms without being caught so far, at least.

Instead of greeting the girls back as usual, he tried to rush past them only to be caught by the one person he dreaded to see every day.

"Good morning, Gray-sama! Let's walk to class together!"

Juvia Lockser. Gray Fullbuster's most obnoxious fangirl.

The blue-haired girl was clinging onto him while shooting glares at the other girls surrounding them. The girls immediately turned and walked away, although Gray could tell that Juvia was still glaring at the back of their heads like lasers.

"Juvia, I'm going to be late." Gray said sternly.

"Yes, Juvia noticed." Juvia said cheerily. _Really, what was she so happy about?_ "Juvia wanted to ask you, but she called last night and you didn't answer. Juvia was so worried," Juvia said, still clinging to him.

Gray regretted the day he gave Juvia Lockser his phone number.

"Juvia, you're not my girlfriend. You don't have to be so worried." He said, but he already knew what her response would be.

"But Juvia will always worry because Juvia is in love with Gray-sama! Juvia will work hard to become Gray-sama's girlfriend!"

 _You'll never be my girlfriend._

He wanted to just say it in her face-she could never be his girlfriend, especially with an attitude like that. While Gray enjoyed some attention girls gave him, they were always frightened whenever Juvia showed up around him, which was practically all the time. He'd rejected her plenty of times, showing he wasn't interested in her like that. She did not falter and continued to hold affection for him while regarding every girl in school he talked to as her "love rivals."

He wondered if Juvia would hate him if she knew what he was up to at night.

"Juvia, I'm gonna go first!" He pushed her hands off and ran off to class, noting from the big clock on the school building that there were 10 minutes left before classes start.

* * *

Gray barely managed to get to class in time, and breathed a relief sigh as he noticed the teacher had not arrived yet. He took his seat by the windows in the corner of the classroom and was greeted by his neighbor seatmate, Lucy Heartfilia.

"Morning, Gray! You barely made it in time!" The blonde-haired girl said cheerfully. "And you still have your clothes on!"

Why did Lucy have to look so impressed? He could keep his clothes on right before classes started, at least.

"Morning, Lucy. I'm blaming it on the idiot Natsu." Gray responded, deciding not to retaliate about his stripping habit.

That was one reason Gray was popular with the girls-which Lucy thought was weird-since normal people don't just strip their clothes off unconsciously. But she was through with questioning about his weird habits.

"Natsu? What did he do this time?" She asked.

"He ditched me and didn't wake me up this morning."

Lucy raised an eyebrow. "I'm pretty sure _you're_ the one that usually wakes him up. Late night?"

"Sort of. You look cheerful." He said, clearly changing the subject.

Lucy could tell he wasn't going to say anything anymore. So she went along with it. She had known Gray for only a few weeks, so it didn't feel right to ask him things that he clearly did not want to talk about.

"Yeah, I finally told off Erza." She said proudly.

Gray's eyes widened. "You did? And she's not gonna kill you?"

Lucy had complained to Gray about her new roommate, Erza, a week after her transfer. At first, she was afraid to approach him, since he was surrounded with so many girls and had a weird habit where he would strip off his clothes unconsciously. She was horrified and flustered at the same time.

But he greeted her normally when she was first assigned to sit next to him, and Lucy found him to be actually friendly, and not a perverted playboy like the rumors made him out to be.

"Nope! She took it well, and even apologized! We're still friends and I don't have anything to worry about!"

Erza apologizing? Gray had known Erza since they were kids, and he knew for a fact she was not the type to apologize. Erza seemed to treat Lucy way differently than him and Natsu.

"Worry about what?"

Gray and Lucy looked to see Erza standing over them, her hands on her hips.

"Nothing! There's nothing to worry about!" Lucy said rather quickly. She hurriedly sat down.

Erza nodded, but frowned when she looked towards Gray, who was looking out the window, seemingly pretending to not notice her.

"Gray, you were late this morning."

Gray rolled his eyes. "Tell me something I don't know."

Erza frowned at his response and was about to tell him off again when their homeroom teacher rushed in and class began right after that.

* * *

Lunch was a time all the students looked forward to, besides actually going home for the day. The halls were quickly filled with noisy chatter and bustling of the crowd as the students of Fairy Academy made way to the cafeteria. Those that brought lunch stayed around to eat in class and some ate lunch outside.

Gray was putting his books in his locker when Juvia showed up, still wearing that bright smile. He sighed internally, dreading another conversation with her.

"Gray-sama, let's eat lunch together! Juvia made one special for Gray-sama!" Juvia said happily.

"Sorry, Juvia. I'm eating with someone else." Gray lied. He was actually just planning to buy a snow cone and go back to class, not really in the mood for being around people at the moment. He still hadn't gotten the chance to beat up Natsu yet.

"WHO?! Is it Lucy Heartfilia?" Juvia's eyes darkened and Gray knew not to put his new friend in that position where she would be made as Juvia's target.

Meanwhile, at the school bench outside the school, Lucy felt a shiver run down her spine.

Gray looked around, and heard the squeals of girls as Loke greeted them. He was smiling and enjoying the attention the girls gave him, as usual.

"I'm having lunch with Loke," Gray said and immediately went to catch his playboy of a friend.

"Loke, let's go," Gray was about to drag him when Loke stopped him.

"No, no Gray, you're interrupting the angels and I having a lovely conversation!" Loke continued to smile charmingly at the ladies, to which said ladies swooned.

"You bastard, you're coming with me." The dark-haired boy said threateningly. "I need to talk to you." Gray was grabbing the orange-haired boy by the collar of his uniform and dragged him off.

Gray ignored the wailing of some girls and especially tried hard ignoring statements of the devil Gray Fullbuster dragging his lover, Prince Loke off to make out in a cave.

Gray didn't notice a blue-haired girl watching him disappointedly until he was out of sight.

* * *

"You better have had a good reason for dragging me off like this, Gray. I was about to accept another date with the gorgeous girl from your class!" Gray wasn't sure who the girl was but he could care less.

Gray and Loke were at the rooftop of the school building, with the former eating a snow cone. Loke had no idea how he brought a snow cone to lunch.

"You're not gonna get Lucy to like you that way, you pervert." Gray said. Loke had told him about his interest with Lucy for a while now, ever since the blond-haired girl transferred actually.

"Of course I will! Once she sees how attractive I am when I'm surrounded by other pretty girls, she'll get jealous and wouldn't dream of turning me down again!"

Gray was positive that would never work. He'd known Lucy for a few weeks, but he could tell she was smart-she would be able to see through Loke-and she wasn't interested in guys like that. Loke was a good friend, but he would be a terrible boyfriend. He had the attention span of a child, and was quick to change girlfriends.

Gray wasn't much different and had his fair share of girlfriends in the past. He wasn't really serious about them, just attracted to them and had gone on dates before. He wasn't trying to play with anyone's feelings, really.

He just didn't have the time to _be_ truly serious about a girl because once he'd get a girlfriend, something bad always happened on their dates; and it usually happened to his girlfriend at the time. Either the food on her plate was suddenly too spicy, or that one time they were alone on the staircase, he was just about to kiss her until she complained that her head was incredibly itchy. Then her whole body began to itch and eventually she just fan off and left Gray alone wondering what the hell happened.

The next day, Gray received a letter in his locker telling that it wasn't going to work out. It wasn't even the fact that he was a popular guy getting dumped, but more of the fact his previous girlfriends never told him what got them dumping him in the first place.

And he wasn't going to believe there was some sick curse out there that prevented him from dating.

"Were you even listening to me? You had the balls to drag me out here and you're not even listening." Loke interrupted his thoughts.

"Sorry, what were you saying?"

"My plan to make Lucy fall for me!" Loke said proudly.

"Whatever, man. I don't care." Gray grumbled.

Loke stopped. Gray obviously dragged him out here for something important.

"So what's up with you lately? Heard that you almost got punished by Erza for being late today," Loke began. "You snuck out last night, didn't you?"

"I didn't get punished. And yeah, I did."

"You were on a date?"

"Yup. It was a hot chick too. But her ex-boyfriend just had to show up," Gray muttered darkly.

"So you're sexually frustrated?" Loke pressed.

"No!" Gray denied. "Maybe."

"How long has it been since your last girlfriend, dude?" Loke asked.

"Two months ago."

"Man, that's long."

"Of course it is, for you. You change girlfriends every week. That's still not gonna get Lucy to like you."

"Will you stop that with Lucy?!" Loke was offended. "I have my plans and so do you."

"What plans?"

"Plans on how to get the next girlfriend, duh." Loke said.

"You say that easily. Every girl in school I date dumps me for some reason. It's either that, or _I_ dump _them_ because I can tell they look more scared something's gonna happen than actually happy dating me."

Loke was quiet. It was true Gray shouldn't have any problems with getting a girl, but he'd hear some girls whispering now and then in the halls that they should have given up on "Gray-sama" a long time ago and that there was some curse surrounding him.

"Maybe you really are cursed." Loke pointed out.

Gray gave him a punch on the arm for that.

Loke groaned. "I'm just kidding, man. Didn't you ever think that this bad luck you have once you start dating is probably the works of a third person?"

"You mean sabotage?"

"Yup."

Gray was quiet before he opened his mouth again. "I dunno. I mean, I did think about it sometimes. But when I ask the girl about it she'd just avoid the topic. Maybe she was scared of her ex-boyfriend or something."

"Gray, the only bad things happening are mostly to the girl in question. If it _is_ sabotage, then it's probably one of your jealous fan girls." Loke said. "I mean, I had some experience with that."

Gray grumbled. "Who could it be, then?"

"What about Juvia?"

Gray was suddenly slack-jawed. "What?"

"It could be her." Loke suggested.

Gray was quiet again. It was true that Juvia tended to be obvious about her distate for his fangirls, and she clearly showed her dislike of Lucy as her number one "love rival."

But to _sabotage_ his girlfriends? Juvia was annoying most of the time, but she wasn't _mean_.

"I don't think so."

"You'll find out somehow." Loke said.

"How am I gonna do that? You want me to just ask her straight?"

"No, you could get a new girlfriend and investigate."

"I'm not getting a girlfriend just because I want to get rid of this curse."

"You said you didn't believe in curses," Loke pointed out again.

Gray gave him another punch on the arm.

"Well, you could get a fake girlfriend and investigate." Loke suggested, ignoring the slight pain.

"That's stupid."

"It's not. It's a good idea."

"I can't think of a girl willing to risk herself and be my fake girlfriend." Gray said.

"You talk as if you don't have friends that would help you do this."

"Ok, then. Who would you suggest?" The dark-haired boy asked.

"Mirajane?"

"Nahh...she's already got a boyfriend. Has to be someone who's single." Gray responded. Even if Mira didn't have a boyfriend, he doubt Mira would help him. His silver-haired friend liked to pair him up with a bunch of girls, even guys (Gray shuddered at that), but would never consider herself.

"Lisanna?"

Gray shook his head. "No. I heard that there were a ton of guys that like her, I don't feel like getting pummeled."

"Levy?"

"She likes Gajeel." Gray said, referring to a tall guy with piercings in Gray's neighbor class. "Maybe Lucy would help me out."

"NO NOT LUCY! Man, how could you suggest that? _I'm_ going after her, remember?" Loke argued.

"Fine, dude. Besides, if it really was Juvia that's doing all the sabotaging, Lucy would just get hated more. This fake girlfriend needs to be someone who can actually stand up to whoever is making my dating life a mess."

Gray was eating the last bite of his snow cone when Loke made his final suggestion.

"Well, that only leaves Cana and Erza then."

 _Erza?_

Gray couldn't help but choke. He forcibly tried to swallow the remaining shave ice in his mouth.

Loke laughed at his pain. "What is up with you and the name Erza? You that scared of her?"

"Man, that's not funny!" Gray said angrily. "And I'm not scared of her!"

Loke couldn't help but notice he was slightly flustered too. Gray usually wasn't the type of person to get flustered easily.

Interesting.

"So Erza's out, then?" Loke asked feeling very amused.

"Of course she's out. She'd never do something as dumb as this." Gray muttered.

"So that leaves Cana."

Gray thought about this for a while. Cana might be a good choice, actually. He'd known the brunette for years, ever since Gray moved to Magnolia, actually. Cana befriended him easily since they were the only kids around the neighborhood around their age at the time. At least, before Erza showed up a year later.

They weren't as close as before, what with them both being in different classes. And the fact that Cana was popular with the guys as much as Gray was with the girls in Fairy Academy.

He didn't doubt that Cana could handle rabid fangirls. She was pretty strong and wouldn't let something like a jealous girl out for revenge get to her.

The best thing was, despite being both very attractive people, Gray and Cana never once felt attracted to _each other_.

And that was good, because the last thing Gray needs is for his childhood friend to like him all of a sudden, (which he was sure was impossible-Cana mentioned she liked older guys) and get her heart broken because Gray had always thought of them as best buddies. Sometimes he even thought of her as a sister of some sort. She was quite similar to Ultear, his adopted sister. Both of them liked to tease him endlessly.

The problem was, would they be able to pull off a boyfriend-girlfriend stunt?

The whole school knew the most popular guy, Gray Fullbuster and the hottest girl, Cana Alberona were just friends. Cana even encouraged his fangirls to just go after him, which clearly showed the whole school she wasn't interested in Gray that way. Cana even told him once that Juvia didn't think of her as a love rival for a long time.

"I'll ask Cana. She's my only option now."

Loke nodded and suddenly thought of something. "You know what's better? If you pull this off, you might even get Juvia off your case. I mean, you clearly aren't interested in her."

"A fake girlfriend to get Juvia off my back?" Gray paused and suddenly lit up. "That...might not be such a bad idea!"

"You might not get Juvia to stop liking you, but at least she might tone it down a bit if you made her believe you got a serious girlfriend that would hunt her down if she got too close to you." Loke made a point.

Would Cana do that for him? He wasn't sure, but he liked the idea of this fake girlfriend thing even more.

* * *

"No."

"Whaattt?"

Cana sighed. "I can't believe I'm actually the best candidate for this stupid plan of yours."

The two friends were currently behind one of the school buildings. Gray wanted to ask Cana privately about his favor, avoiding attention he might get from the fan girls. He immediately dragged the brunette out right after her club activities. He was glad it ended quickly.

"It's not stupid!" Well, it was stupid but the idea of Juvia finally taking a hint - was not. "You know how I'm suddenly having bad luck with dating."

"I know, and I feel bad for you. But I can't date anyone if the school thinks we're a couple." Cana said pointedly.

"You're dating someone now?"

"Gray, I'm always dating someone."

This wasn't going anywhere. Cana wasn't going to help him with this. Unless...

"I'll treat you to some beer. How about that?" She couldn't deny this. Gray knew Cana had an extreme liking to alcohol ever since the one time Gray, Cana, Natsu and Loke all snuck out of the dorms in the middle of the night last summer. Loke was invited to a party that night and they all tagged along.

Gray and Loke both lost their virginity that night while Cana had her first beer. Natsu went because he was hungry, of course.

Ever since then Cana had been dying to drink some of that beer again, but security was especially tight in the female dormitories.

Despite that...

"Still no."

Gray's jaw dropped comically. "Who are you and what have you done with Cana?!" He asked loudly, pointing a finger at her.

"The guy I'm dating is already treating me to beer," Cana said as if that was obvious. "Besides, I can tell faking to be your girlfriend will be troublesome. Sorry, but you'll have to find someone else."

"There isn't anybody else I can rely on this. I told you I don't know anybody that would be able to handle the rabid fan girls. Juvia, specifically." Gray muttered darkly.

Cana scoffed. "Are you sure about that? I can think of one person and I'm surprised you haven't thought about her. You could fake with her, considering she was your first crush and all."

"Erza was not my crush, dammit!" Gray said angrily. Cana couldn't tell the tint of red on his cheeks were because he was angry or flustered. She guessed the latter.

"Did I say it was Erza?" She asked teasingly.

"W-what? Who else could it be?"

"Exactly my point." Cana laughed. "You only ever liked Erza."

"That's not true!" Gray clenched his fists. If Cana wasn't his childhood friend, Gray would've punched her by now.

"Whatever, Gray. I still think Erza would be good."

"She wouldn't. I mean, we're not as close as you think we are. You remember what happened." Gray said. Cana detected the slight depressed tone in his words. "She'd never agree to this."

Cana had always regretted what happened that day. She had blamed herself for setting Gray off, but Gray assured her that that wasn't the case. She was glad along the way, Gray and Erza sort of started talking to each other again, but it wasn't the same. There was a painful awkwardness surrounding them that all of them noticed even just a little bit.

"Then you'll have to persuade her somehow. If she _does_ agree, she'd probably just glare at all your fan girls and scare Juvia off. If that's what you want, of course." Cana made a point. "And you could ask her about whoever is sabotaging your previous girlfriends. That is, if that person is brave enough to sabotage Erza."

Gray forced himself to calm down and thought about it. The idea of Erza faking and investigating for him seemed more appealing. And if somehow Erza found out who it was that had been ruining his dates, Gray could talk her-or him-out of whatever future sabotage plans and hopefully the sabotaging would stop. That would be the cue to stop the faking and get on with his life.

And find a real girlfriend.

"But I don't think she's gonna agree if you ask her, when you think about it." Cana said again.

"What? Why?"

"If you haven't heard, Erza's been aiming for the Honor Student Award. Being your girlfriend-or anyone's for that matter-is the least on her mind."

The Honor Student Award was the most prestigious award and title a student of Fairy Academy could get. Besides the title and reward money of 1 million jewels, the hardworking student could get the privilege to go anywhere in the world for a month.

"She wants a million jewels?"

Cana gave him a punch to the shoulder to which he yelped. "What?!"

"There's a lot more to that reward. Who knows why she wants that, but the fact is, getting that award won't be easy. It's not just grades the school is looking at, but also perfect behavior. She'd ruin her chances if she hangs around you. As a girlfriend, no less."

"I'm not gonna get her in trouble. When have I ever?" Gray grumbled.

"I'm not even busy doing much, but I can already tell it's going to be troublesome. If you're gonna get her to be your fake girlfriend, you can't ask her for permission."

"Then?"

Cana just smirked. "I have an idea, but first, you've gotta promise yourself something."

Gray raised an eyebrow. _Promise myself?_ "Are you sure it's not something I gotta promise _you_?"

"Nah...I wouldn't care either way." _I'd be happier if you break the promise, actually_. "It's just a warning."

"Now you got me curious." Gray was getting impatient.

"Make sure you don't fall for her."

* * *

 _A/N:_ _Review make me spout rainbows and giggle like a crazy person!_


	3. The Awkward Friends

_A/N: So many exciting things happened these few weeks. Grayza week, the new episodes of the Tartarus Arc and the releases of Girls' Generation's two brand new music videos! My heart can only take so much! I couldn't update because I was too distracted by all these events. Sorry! I really wanted to participate in Grayza week but I'm not much of a writer and couldn't get any ideas for those prompts. Maybe I'll send in a late Grayza week entry or something._

 _ari: Thanks! I'll try harder to keep it up!_

 _Absolute-ZERO999: Thanks for the advice on POVs! And I'm glad you like the Gray/Cana interaction I put there!_

 _FuckingAwesome123: Thanks! I'll continue as long as I know there is at least one person reading!_

 _Nokiyoh682: Thanks for being a fan! I'm too touched!_

 _Grayza Fan: Thanks for your support on both my fics! I do feel like I'm on a roll! Thanks for your advice! I'll try changing POVs from time to time. It's harder than I thought though xD_

 _VK: Thanks for being excited! I'm gonna try and make it more exciting from now on!_

 _PinkKoala213: I'm glad you thought the content was good and that it wasn't confusing! I have been leaving out some thoughts just to make you guys wonder what the other character is thinking._

 _Thanks to all your wonderful reviews, follows and faves!_

 _Here's chapter two!_

* * *

 _ **Faking and Loving**_

 _ **Chapter 2**_

* * *

Gray Fullbuster was proud to admit that he was popular not just due to his good looks, but rather his amazing athletic skills in general. In the end, he chose to play basketball, since Fairy Academy's basketball team was in a dire situation, with most skilled members already graduated. With the main members consisting of Gray Fullbuster, Natsu Dragneel, Laxus Dreyar, Gajeel Redfox and Freed Justine, victory was not merely a dream. For the past two years, Fairy Academy's basketball team had earned countless victories, even beating against powerful athletic schools like Saber Academy.

Fairy Academy had been an escalator school for a long time now. It was only a few years ago that the academy decided to provide dormitories for students. Students from all over Fiore were accepted to Fairy Academy. It had slowly risen to become one of the most popular school in Fiore. It wasn't a school that was particularly known for having intelligent students with outstanding grades, and it wasn't a school for the elite either.

As long as a student had at least one incredible talent, the school will accept the student and even give a full scholarship.

Fairy Academy had diverse talented students, each possessing a talent so outstanding it earned them a spot in Fairy Academy. The students that shined brighter than the others, that were well known throughout the country; earned full scholarships. The majority of the students accepted had exceptional talent in sports though, and even musical talent.

However, very few actually were accepted because of excellent grades and high intelligence which was why Fairy Academy had been the topic of discussion in almost every meeting of the Ministry of Education in Fiore for producing students with average grades every year.

Markarov Dreyar, Principal of Fairy Academy for over 20 years, had proposed accepting students regardless of their background. The school was generous in giving out scholarships, as many students with talent but came from a poor background were admitted. Despite their numerous talents, these kids have little-to no motivation in studying. Markarov was glad there were still many sponsors that were willing to fund the school but still couldn't help but be disappointed in the examination results every semester.

Which was why starting from last year, in order to help the students gain a little enthusiasm in studying, an Honor Student Award would be given to the student who achieves the highest result in all of the examinations overall, full attendance, and perfect behavior. Generally students in Fairy Academy were highly active in extra-curricular activities, but this award would only be given based on the criteria stated.

Besides the title and reward money of 1 million jewels, the student could get the privilege to go anywhere in the world for a month. It was enough to motivate the ever hardworking Erza Scarlet, for reasons yet to be revealed.

* * *

" _Make sure you don't fall for her."_

Like that was even possible.

Gray wasn't paying attention to class after his conversation with Cana that day. There were so many reasons as to why it would be impossible for Gray to like his hot-tempered, red-haired friend by the name of Erza Scarlet. He was going to list it all to Cana the next time he saw the brunette.

He vehemently denied that falling for Erza would ever happen, listing all of Erza's faults and how she was not his type _at all,_ but Cana just laughed it off with a "Whatever you say" and a knowing smirk to top it all off.

Cana always managed to get under his skin like that. She always seemed to know things as if she had predicted them before-hand. Gray hated it when Cana seemed to know something about him that he didn't.

Most of the times, whatever she predicted actually came true. It was ridiculous. Gray was starting to think maybe she really did have some sort of supernatural power in fortune-telling.

Cana may have predicted something about him again, but Gray was determined to prove her wrong.

"Fullbuster! I'm sure Miss Scarlet's hair is very pretty, but I need your eyes back to the problem on the board!" Gray was snapped out of his thoughts as Mr Gildarts Clive's voice was heard loud and clear.

Class 2-A howled in laughter and only then did Gray realize he was just staring towards the front seat, and said person occupied in the front seat was Erza Scarlet.

Erza turned back to him while raising an eyebrow and Gray couldn't help but blush as everyone in class laughed and Erza looking at him weirdly.

 _God, this was embarrassing!_

"I-I wasn't staring at-" Gray tried to deny but Mr Clive, their homeroom teacher had already turned towards the board, ignoring his attempts to defend himself.

He was just staring off into space; it wasn't like he particularly stared at the back of Erza's head! The red-haired girl's seat just happened to be in front of his.

Gray could see Natsu Dragneel, his pink-haired friend and rival sitting across Erza, still chuckling with Lucy behind him. Gray turned to his blonde-haired neighbor seatmate next to him, giving her a glare that immediately shut her up; albeit with an apologetic expression.

Natsu was rubbing off Lucy in the worst ways. It had only been a few weeks since Lucy's transfer but Natsu and Lucy got along great, as if they'd known each other their whole lives. Gray's first impression of Lucy was that she was sophisticated and high class, and she didn't look like she was the type to talk much. She greeted him politely on her first day, and Gray felt like she treated him quite normally than other girls who were entranced by him at first sight.

But then Natsu greeted her cheerfully that day, and Gray watched her become furious at him for some reason, with Natsu just laughing at her in the end.

It was typical of Natsu who was very idiotic.

Gray's impression of Lucy became wrong after a few days of watching Natsu and Lucy interact. The blond girl was just as crazy as Natsu was, goofy and loud. She was quite vain sometimes,(Gray couldn't blame her; who wouldn't be a little vain with a body like that?) but Natsu always dismissed her attempts to show off her vanity, ignoring her "sex-appeal," calling her fat and weird.

Of course this resulted in Lucy calling him weirder of the two. Gray found out she was actually quite violent as well, and Natsu was the one that triggered it by calling Lucy fat.

Still, with Natsu hanging around Lucy a lot, gradually Gray befriended Lucy too. And it was nice, having a new female friend that wasn't obsessed with you.

Gray had been a Fairy student from when he was just 7 years old. Fairy Academy was an escalator school and Gray was familiar with the few students that were in the same batch as him from elementary school days. The only girls in school that weren't obsessed with him were his childhood friends, those that knew him from their elementary school days.

Cana, Mirajane, Lisanna, Levy, Laki, Evergreen...

 _Erza._

Gray shook his head. Ever since his conversation with Cana about Erza, his mind couldn't help but drift towards her. There were a handful of his childhood friends. They still hung out together sometimes but only Erza was excluded. She always seemed busy and Gray sometimes found himself missing those days when it was just him, Erza and Natsu goofing around in elementary school.

Or just him and Erza hanging out in general.

" _You only ever liked Erza."_

Damn. Cana's words always _did_ get under his skin.

Cana never believed him when he denied that statement. It pissed Gray to no end.

Couldn't a guy miss his female friend without having his other friends assume that he liked her?

"Gray." A hand on his shoulder shook him out of his reverie.

Gray looked up to see Erza staring down at him, almost curiously. His mind was blank for a second before he jumped, quite shocked at his friend, who had let go of his shoulders because Gray had stepped back.

"E-Erza? What's up?" Gray asked nervously.

"Class is already over." She said.

Gray looked around to see that everyone was already clearing their stuff and getting ready for their club activities.

"See ya Gray! Erza!" Lucy waved cheerfully, rushing off to her club activity. Gray heard her mention that she joined the book club recently.

"Gray! Tell the coach I'm gonna be late!" Was all Natsu said before he rushed off to God-knows-where.

Gray sighed. He was going to get in trouble again for not handling Natsu again. Natsu's idiocy had apparently become Gray's responsibility.

Gray was clearing his books when he noticed that Erza was still in the classroom.

Alone with him.

"You wanted something?" Gray asked casually, barely looking at her.

Erza looked like she was thinking before she opened her mouth. "Is there something wrong?"

"Huh?"

"You haven't been paying attention in class."

Gray raised an eyebrow at her. He wasn't sure what she was thinking most of the time. Was she concerned for him? Or was she just concerned for his studies?

Erza used to be annoying when she was concerned for him and Natsu over little things, like their studies, or whether they were playing nice. In their childhood days, she was very strict, always disciplined them, and bossed them around as if she was a mother of some sort. Gray and Natsu were scared of her and usually followed her orders around. Erza used to be fun to hang out with when she wasn't constantly telling them what was wrong or what was right.

That was what Gray had thought.

But as they got older, Gray was eventually tired and didn't want to take her nagging anymore. You could say it was him being rebellious. He didn't want to be treated like a kid anymore.

Erza was just that. She thought of him as just a kid that she needed to teach.

Their friendship became slightly different after that. They didn't talk to each other for a while, Gray was still angry at Erza after all. Natsu became angry at Gray too. Gray was mad at Natsu for not agreeing with him, when he was also subjected to Erza's discipline. Natsu told him it was just Erza's way of caring but Gray just scoffed.

A few weeks after that, Erza gave him an apology.

She didn't give a long-list explaining why she had treated Gray the way she did, but she did apologize for not noticing that he was actually troubled by her ways.

Gray was surprised she apologized but he felt uneasy at times when she slowly began to talk to him less.

The only times Gray had an actual conversation with Erza after that was when the gang hung out together. But they rarely just _talked_ to each other.

Gray was bothered by it but he didn't dare admit it to Erza. He felt like he finally won that argument, and Erza was finally treating him like a friend instead of someone she bosses around because she felt like it.

But the opposite happened. She just gradually distanced herself from him.

Gray wasn't sure what Erza was thinking. Maybe she just didn't know what to say to him anymore after he yelled at her in front of all their friends that day.

He felt victorious for a few moments, but when she actually apologized to him, he felt like he lost.

It was the most contradicting feeling ever. He pretty much blamed himself deep down, but when others asked he would put the blame on Erza.

 _Maybe asking her to help being a fake girlfriend was a bad idea after all_ , Gray thought.

"Gray, you're being quiet again."

Once again snapped out of his thoughts, Gray found Erza still staring at him. Startled that she was still here, he responded rather lamely. "J-Just thinking about...stuff." He said, scratching the back of his neck.

Erza raised an eyebrow but didn't press him any further. She looked like she was contemplating on saying something, but instead of just abandoning the idea like Gray thought she would, she opened her mouth again.

"Good luck in your next game."

"Huh?" Gray heard her loud and clear, there wasn't anyone around and the class was quiet, but he couldn't help but respond that way to make sure he actually heard what he thought came out of her mouth.

Erza took a deep breath, and Gray was thinking maybe she was just as nervous as he was. But why would she be nervous, really?

"I heard from Lucy, that you're going to play against Paradise Academy tomorrow."

Paradise Academy was a school that reigned in academics, and topped the country's ranking of number one school every year. It was basically a school full of geniuses and rich kids. It was hard to actually get their basketball team to play against Fairy Academy, but their coach managed to arrange a practice match against them.

Although they conquered in academics, it didn't mean they were terrible in athletics. On the contrary, their basketball team was one of the best in Fiore. While Fairy Academy's team was fairly new, Paradise Academy had earned a lot of victories for years. The only reason Fairy Academy was able to win these two years was because Paradise Academy didn't send their team to play. They claimed that their students were focusing on much more important things like topping the National Mock Exams.

 _Yeah right. More like you guys ran out of good players and were just too chicken,_ Gray thought.

"It's just a practice match." Gray shrugged seemingly uncaring. It would do well on their reputation if they beat Paradise Academy, even if it was just a practice match.

"Still, I wish you good luck." Erza said.

God, why was Erza so stiff with him? Gray had the feeling she was trying to strike up a conversation but everything felt awkward.

"Thanks."

Gray was already walking towards the door, but then turned around to find Erza looking as if she was...slapping herself?

"You okay?" Gray asked from the door.

"Huh? Oh, yes." Erza said. She almost looked embarrassed for getting caught slapping herself for reasons Gray could never actually ask.

"You wanna come cheer for us?" Gray blurted out without thinking.

WHAT? Of course she's not gonna come! She's got better things to do than be in a noisy crowd, in a smelly gym, cheering for _him_.

I mean, for Fairy Academy.

Erza appeared shocked at his question. "Is that okay?"

Gray didn't realize he was breaking out into a wide smile. "Hell yeah it's okay!" He said without keeping his enthusiasm in.

Maybe his smile was contagious, because Erza broke into a small smile too. It was small but managed to make Gray's heart skip a few beats. He couldn't remember the last time he'd seen her smile like that to him.

"Very well. Be prepared for my kind of cheering, Gray Fullbuster." She said proudly.

Apparently smiles were great for breaking the awkward tension because Gray found himself being comfortable in her presence, something he hadn't felt in a long time. He figured he should take note if he was still planning with the fake lovers routine with Erza, just in case things get awkward.

He was sure it would be.

"I expect nothing else of Erza Scarlet." He said, leaving the classroom with a relieved, happy sigh and feeling more fired up for the next game.

* * *

"I'm back!"

Lucy was greeted by Erza who was sitting down at her study desk, with a stoic "Welcome back."

Typical Erza. She was just really focused and Lucy so far had never seen her do anything fun but sit at that desk and study. There was only one way to get Erza out of her study mode.

Sitting down on her single bed, Lucy carefully brought out the small, pretty cardboard box from her bag and set it on the bed. Erza was still answering math problems.

 _Not for long_ , Lucy thought with a smirk.

"Erza! Look what I got!" Lucy was dropping the bait now.

The scarlet-haired girl turned around, wondering what her blond friend was so happy about from her tone, to see Lucy grinning and holding a pretty box by the handle, obviously showing it proudly in front of her.

Erza let go of her pencil. "Is that...?"

"Yes! I bought your favorite strawberry cheesecake to share!" Lucy said happily, although she was sure in the end, Erza would be eating more parts.

Almost immediately, Erza got up from her seat and scrambled towards Lucy's bed. She was already prepared with her paper fork, ready to dig in.

Lucy chuckled. "You pay more attention to cake more than me."

Erza didn't answer to that, to which Lucy could feel her sweat dropping. _She's not even denying it._

She opened the box and soon the delicious-looking strawberry cheesecake was finally revealed. Erza could feel her mouth water.

Erza took the first bite, smiling happily as she swallowed the small portion of cake Lucy bought. Erza in bliss was contagious as Lucy could feel happiness showing on her face too.

Lucy was full after eating her second slice of cake, but Erza didn't seem to be stopping anytime soon. "Have you chosen what club you want to join already? It's already been a week since you quit being in the student council," Lucy began.

"I'm still thinking about it," Erza said.

Quitting the student council was a hard decision to make. Erza had been on the student council for years, and she was even aiming to be Student Council President one day. But ever since the announcement regarding the Honor Student Award, Erza knew she had a new goal to obtain.

She was determined to win that award no matter what.

Being in the student council, while it was fun for Erza, she could not deny that it made her busy most of the time. By the end of the day she'd be exhausted and gave herself a lot of excuses to skip on studying. Her grades were fairly good, even while being in the student council.

But to obtain the Honor Student Award, Erza needed her grades to be _perfect._

So she quit the student council, knowing that being there easily tired her out and took up most of her time. It was fine, she thought. It wasn't like the school was collapsing just because she wasn't in the running for president anymore.

"You could join the book club with me, Erza. We're not that busy anyway." Lucy suggested. "We just do a lot of reading, and sometimes writing too. In meetings we mostly just share opinions on the latest book we read."

Erza munched on her cake, still thinking about Lucy's offer. It wasn't a bad offer actually. Fairy Academy was especially active in extra-curricular activities so most of the clubs were very active and busy. The book club, while it was active, it was still probably the least busy club compared to other clubs in Fairy Academy.

"Tomorrow I'll sign up." Erza finally decided.

Lucy cheered.

Eventually it was nightfall, and Lucy was already tucking herself to bed when she noticed her red-haired roommate was ready to hit the hay too. Erza switched off the lights, leaving only a little moonlight shining through the windows of their room.

"You're not studying tonight?" Lucy asked.

"I feel tired." Erza got into bed and brought the blankets to cover her body up to neck.

That was odd. Usually no matter how tired Erza was, she still forced herself to stay up to study.

"Something interesting happened today, Erza?" Lucy asked.

Erza remembered her conversation with Gray. She smiled.

"I talked with Gray today." It was a short conversation but nonetheless it was still slight progress.

"Huh? That's normal isn't it?" Lucy asked.

Lucy knew that Erza and Gray were friends. What was so interesting about talking with Gray?

Erza couldn't blame Lucy for not noticing the awkward aura that surrounded both of them most of the time. It was barely there when they were together in a group, so Lucy didn't notice. It was present when they were alone, which was rare these days. Erza was sure Natsu noticed, but he didn't look like he was doing anything about it. Natsu wasn't as oblivious as most people thought.

She decided to talk to Lucy about her attempts on destroying the awkwardness surrounding her and Gray's friendship on a different day.

"Nothing. It's just that I think I'll join you in cheering for our basketball team tomorrow."

"Really? What made you change your mind?" Lucy had been asking Erza for some time now. Erza declined saying that she'd rather study.

In all honesty, she wouldn't mind sparing an hour or so watching a basketball game once in a while. She used to watch Fairy Academy's games all the time before she was obsessed with getting the Honor Student Award.

But tomorrow's game, Fairy Tail, the name of Fairy Academy's basketball team, was up against the team from Paradise Academy.

 _It's not like that guy's going to be there_ , Erza thought.

"Gray invited me. He looked like he wanted a hardcore cheerleader like old times." Erza said. Lucy could hear the smile in her tone.

"I'd like to see how you cheer like old times then!" Lucy wasn't sure how Erza was like before, but she guessed not that much different from now.

"I'll warn you, I tend to get scary. Natsu complained that I was supposed to only intimidate the opposing team, not our team too."

Lucy laughed. She really liked chatting with Erza like this, when Erza would just let go and relax once in a while. But when she was studying, the only thing occupying her mind was that award.

"Hey, Erza. If you don't mind me asking, why are you so bent on winning that Honor Student Award anyway? You don't look like the type to be interested in titles and popularity."

Erza was quiet for a few seconds before she sighed. Lucy was her good friend. It wasn't a crime for her asking and Erza figured it'd be okay if Lucy knew.

"The reward actually."

"You want money?" Lucy asked, slightly shocked.

"Don't be so surprised. I need that money." Erza said. "I'm not rich like you."

Lucy winced. She didn't mean to upset Erza. Was Erza strapped for cash or something? That would explain why she didn't look too happy when Lucy suggested buying a study lamp. "Sorry, I didn't mean it like that." She didn't notice Erza's expression. She hoped Erza wasn't upset. "I know normally people would want money but...you're on full scholarship right? Why do you seem desperate for it?"

Erza hesitated. "It's for helping out a friend. From my village." Was all she said.

Lucy was skeptical. Her friend was working so hard just to give away all that money in the end? That was some hardcore sacrifice, in Lucy's opinion.

"It's fine if you don't believe me." Erza said.

"N-No! I believe you! I mean, that's really admirable, Erza!" Lucy quickly responded. "I'm sure your friend is really important to you, for you to sacrifice so much."

Being born in a rich family with high status, Lucy was surrounded by people who were selfish and obsessed with money. Charity was given usually to gain fame. She was ashamed to say that there were times when she thought she was on a whole other level compared to the other students in the school.

But in the few weeks she transferred here, everyone was exceptionally kind to her even without knowing of her family's status. When she became vain, a pink haired boy by the name of Natsu always brought her down, much to Lucy's initial annoyance.

Lucy became disgusted with herself for doubting Erza for a second. "I'll support you to the end, Erza! You'll get that award for sure!"

"Thank you, Lucy."

Lucy dozed off after that, leaving only Erza with her thoughts.

It was true that the reward Erza was aiming for would be given to a dear friend from her hometown in Rosemary Village, but a small part of her was thrilled at the thought of extracting revenge against her ex-friend turned rival from Paradise Academy.

* * *

 _A/N: So we're still going through the introductions but in the next chapter the plot really begins! Hopefully it's not predictable or cliché. Gray and Erza are so hard to write! I haven't read a lot of Gray fanfics or Erza fanfics so I don't know where the hell I got this courage to write this._

 _If you have the time, do leave a review! Reviews are my energy pill!_

 _-2:35PM_

 _-31/8/15_


	4. Natsu and Lucy

_A/N: I've been quite in a bad mood because I actually though I could get away with having a mature discussion about Lucy's character with a Lucy-hater. It's really quite impossible to get along with someone who hates your favorite character with a passion._

 _Anyways, I decided to try my best updating once a week on the weekends for my three current ongoing fanfics._

 _Thanks to every single one of you that reviewed, followed and favorited from the previous chapter!_

 _Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail. If I did, it wouldn't be a famous manga like it is today. (Because I'd make Grayza canon but unfortunately Grayza isn't a fan favorite ship)_

* * *

 _ **Faking and Loving**_

 _ **Chapter 3**_

* * *

Lucy woke up that morning to see Erza's bed empty.

She glanced at the clock on the wall and was surprised to see that it was only 5:00AM.

 _Since when could I wake up so early?_ Lucy thought to herself.

She figured maybe because she was able to sleep soundly last night, with Erza finally turning the lights off in the room. Where _was_ Erza anyway?

She exited the room in just her pajamas and walked down the hallway. Fairy Hills dormitory was still quiet, and the light in the hallways were dim. She walked past a number of rooms and climbed down a flight of stairs, making way to the one place she thought Erza might be.

The study room.

It was the only room allowed to be in at night other than the student's rooms. Only the study room would allow the lights to be on the whole night; there were a number of promising students after all.

But no one as hardworking and studious as Erza Scarlet.

Lucy opened the door slightly and peeked in. Sure enough, her scarlet-haired friend was right there, and not surprisingly, she was alone. Of course, the students didn't actually wake up until 6:00AM. But what _was_ surprising was that she didn't appear to be studying.

Is she... _coloring_?

"Erza...?"

Her studious friend turned around to find Lucy peeking from the door. "Lucy...? What are doing here so early?"

She opened the door fully and walked inside. "I could ask the same thing because it doesn't look like you're studying."

Lucy pulled up a seat next to Erza, finally noticing what she was actually doing. "Are these...fan signs?"

Erza sighed. She might as well tell Lucy what she had been up to since she woke up early that morning. "I wanted to do a little something to cheer for Fairy Tail for today's game."

Lucy smiled. _Is this why she went to sleep early? So she could wake up early and do this while no one was looking?_

She watched as Erza colored the bubble writing of the letter "L" at the end of word "Fairy Tail." She even sprinkled red and blue glitter on the writings. It was quite simple, yet eye-catching enough. "You're not very creative are you, Erza?" The blond teased.

"What did you say?" Erza darkened.

The blond laughed nervously. "I-I mean...it's good!" _Please don't get mad, please don't get mad!_ Lucy repeated in her head several times.

Erza sighed, almost depressed. Lucy was surprised to see that transition. "It really is horrible, isn't it?"

"N-No, I didn't say that!"

"Forget it."

Lucy couldn't help but feel guilty again. Maybe she said something she shouldn't have? Erza woke up so early to do something other than studying and she had teased her for it. Granted it was just a joke but...

Wait...

Now that Lucy thought about it, this was the first time she was motivated in something else other than studying. Did she always like basketball? No, that couldn't be it. Lucy had tried to encourage her before to come but she always refused. Then suddenly Erza said she'd come yesterday. What made her change her mind again?

" _Gray invited me. He looked like he wanted a hardcore cheerleader like old times."_

Was Gray always that influential when it came to Erza? She remembered a lot of times their friends like Mira, Cana and Natsu all invited her out to do fun things like watching a game, or going karaoke, but Erza always declined.

To be honest, Lucy didn't really know Erza all that well. They had recently just become friends, thanks to Natsu who had introduced her to all of _his_ friends.

"It's done."

It was a simple cheer of "GO FAIRY TAIL!" on the board, but seeing Erza's motivation and sincerity, she figured that it was going to be the heart of her cheer on the day of the game that mattered the most.

"Perfect!" Lucy grinned.

* * *

Classes that morning had just ended. The bell had rung indicating that it was finally time for lunch.

Lucy sighed. School was not even over yet there were already tons of homework piling up. She might have to stay up late to finish all of it, since after school she was going to spend a lot of time watching the practice game between Fairy Academy and Paradise. She dreaded at the thought of sacrificing her beauty sleep.

"Yo, Lucy! Let's get lunch!"

She looked up and sure enough, Natsu Dragneel was standing there in front of her table, grinning like always.

"Okay!" Lucy turned to Erza, who was clearing her table. She looked like she was in a hurry. "Erza! Let's have lunch together!"

"I'll have to refuse." Was all Erza said before she hurried off and exited the class in high speed.

 _Where was she going?_

Lucy turned to Gray, whom was staring at the door from where Erza had just disappeared from. It looked like he was deep in thought.

"Gray? You wanna join us?" Lucy asked concerned.

"H-Huh?" Gray seemed out of it. It looked like he was snapped from his trance. "Oh, sorry, not today."

"You're gonna have lunch with that Juvia chick?" Natsu asked, baffled.

Lucy swore she saw a tick on Gray's forehead. "That's _definitely_ not it." Gray stood up. "I've got something to do."

"That's what you said yesterday too." Natsu said curiously. Lucy nodded.

Gray thought back to what he was doing at lunch yesterday. Going to Loke for advice about his curse for not getting to date turned to an impossible task of the idea of getting a fake girlfriend to stop Juvia's advances. It was impossible because it was _Erza Scarlet._

Of all people, Erza!

It seemed like a good idea at the time, but after he had a lot of time to truly think, he was hesitating again. What was he afraid of really? Getting rejected? It wasn't like he was _actually_ asking her out or anything. Getting beaten up for a ridiculous request? When Gray and Erza stopped being comfortable friends and started getting awkward with each other, Erza didn't publicly scold or humiliate him by beating him up anymore even when she was a witness of Gray and Natsu childishly arguing.

"Whatever you have to do, you can tell us when you're ready." Lucy said smiling.

Gray smiled back. It was only a few weeks but Lucy had proved to be a good friend. It was like she just knew. She didn't pry or anything of those likes.

"You guys are creepy smiling like that." Natsu commented off-handedly.

"No we're not!" Gray and Lucy exclaimed.

* * *

"You're not gonna eat in the cafeteria, Lucy?" Natsu asked. He was currently leaning by the lockers next to her.

Lucy shook her head. "This morning I woke up early, so I prepared my own lunch in the dorm's kitchen!" Lucy said, slowly taking out her lunchbox from her locker and showed it to him. "Tada!" She said proudly.

"Eh...good for you." Natsu said, barely looking interested.

"Hey! I worked really hard on this!" She said, opening her pink lunchbox for him to see. "Look!"

There were four very delicious-looking sandwiches in the lunchbox and Natsu took one without shame, looking like he was drooling. "Hey what do you think you're eating?!" Lucy protested.

"A sandwich?" He said, munching on her sandwich she prepared so early in the morning to make, innocently. Lucy tried to get it back from him but Natsu was a little taller than her, so she failed. In the end, she just watched him gulp down the last bit of her sandwich.

"Natsu!" She cried. She had three more but still...She was actually going to share it with Erza later.

But Natsu ignored her cries, instead gave her a blinding grin. "That was delicious, Lucy!"

Lucy stared, momentarily awestruck by Natsu's bright grin. For some reason, she felt extremely happy all of a sudden. Maybe it was because Natsu's smile always did that to people and not just her. His smile was contagious and Lucy couldn't deny she felt happy at his praise. She didn't normally cook, what with the chef's back home that always prepared her meals. And moving to Fairy Hills after her transfer, she didn't cook either since meals were prepared by the hostel's cook. Whenever she did try to cook at home, it didn't end well, with the chefs and servants lying to her, saying that her cooking was "not bad" but in fact it was terrible.

It was an instinctive thing to do really this morning, to make sandwiches all of a sudden.

"Thanks! Anyways, I was going to go eat lunch outside. There's a really nice spot – "

"Let's go!" Natsu cut her off, grabbed her wrist and dragged her all the way outside to the shaded spot under the trees.

* * *

"Hey! I wasn't going to share it with you!

Natsu and Lucy were currently at a nice spot near the school fountain, sitting on the bench under the shaded trees.

"It's okay isn't it? If you eat all those sandwiches you're gonna get heavier." Natsu commented carelessly.

"I'm not fat!" Lucy cried, regretting joining him for lunch. "Are you sure you don't want to eat at the cafeteria? Just my sandwiches aren't going to fill you up."

"Nahhh...Otherwise you'd eat alone." Natsu said off-handedly. "And I'll just steal some of Elfman's lunch or something."

Lucy paused. Sometimes Natsu's bluntness really surprised her. She was starting to get to know him better. He was a crazy idiot with a fiery personality most of the time, but then he says things like just now. He was caring, in some ways, with his sincere comments.

"Thanks." Natsu didn't say anything, just continued to eat. "I wouldn't have been alone if Erza hadn't just disappeared though."

"Gray too."

She had forgotten of the fact that it was the first time since they became friends they were having lunch together. Just the two of them. Of course, she didn't really think about it much. Gray and Erza couldn't join, and for some reason Natsu didn't invite any of his other friends too.

 _That reminds me! This was a perfect time to ask Natsu!_

She sighed when she saw him adding more tabasco sauce on his sandwich. She learned everything about Natsu was like hot fire. "You might start breathing fire if you keep adding more."

"Wouldn't that be awesome?!" This might have been the first time she saw Natsu in a dream-like state. It was kind of cute. "I'd be a real fire-breathing dragon!"

Lucy chuckled. Seeing this side of Natsu was really nice. On the day she transferred, she met Natsu for the first time. He introduced her to Fairy Academy, and he was the first friend she made here. On their first meeting already he was talking about his dream the night before of actually becoming a dragon.

 _Wait, I'm getting sidetracked here!_

"Hey, Natsu. You've been friends with Gray and Erza for a long time, right?" Lucy asked. Recently she had been suspecting something odd out of those two; Gray and Erza that is.

Natsu grabbed a bottle of water and chugged it down. He gulped before he answered, "Seven years already."

"That's a long time. So you guys are all childhood friends then?"

"Yeah, pretty much. Me, Gray, Erza, Cana, Lisanna, Mira, Laxus, Elfman, Evergreen, Levy – "

"Okay, okay. I get it. You mean your whole gang of friends basically."

"They're _your_ friends now too, you know." Natsu pointed out.

Lucy smiled gratefully. It was thanks to Natsu she had made so many friends in the span of a few days. She was afraid that she wouldn't be able to make friends since she was quite awkward and scared, leaving home for the first time and living in dorms.

"Gray and Erza knew each other even before that though."

"Really?" Lucy didn't know that. Maybe Gray and Erza were closer than they appeared to be.

"Why are you asking?" Natsu asked.

"It's just...you guys are really close right?"

"Hmmm...I don't wanna be close with Gray but...yup."

"What about Gray and Erza?"

"What about them?"

Lucy was thinking maybe it wouldn't be a good idea to ask Natsu after all. He did seem oblivious to these kinds of things.

"I just noticed that Gray and Erza are...kind of...they just have a different vibe compared to you and Erza. And it's weird since you three are close friends."

Natsu appeared to be in thought. He eyed Lucy in a questioning manner before asking,"What are you implying?"

"I don't know. Maybe they used to be in a relationship or something," She assumed, not really giving a thought to it. "I just noticed they're kind of awkward sometimes."

"Relationship?" Natsu asked stupidly.

Did he really not know what she meant? "You know, lovey-dovey, _romantic_ , that sort of relationship?" Lucy was exasperated.

"Oh..." Natsu was staring blankly before he burst into laughter. "Those two? That's impossible!" He continued to laugh, which irritated Lucy.

"I'm just guessing!" Lucy was offended. "And nothing's impossible!"

"It is when it comes to those two." Natsu was still laughing.

"Okay fine. So they're just normal friends then." Lucy said, wanting to end the conversation. Maybe she was over thinking things.

Natsu was quiet again. He looked like he was contemplating on saying something before he finally said, "I don't wanna admit being close friends with Gray but when we were kids he and Erza were around me the most."

Lucy was quietly listening.

"When me and Gray fought a lot – I wanted to prove I was stronger – Erza always stopped us." Natsu said. "Thanks to her we never really settled most of our fights."

"Erza did?"

"Yeah, by beating us up. Jeez, and she was telling _us_ not to fight." Natsu grumbled.

"I see. But I haven't seen her do that." Lucy pointed out. "You guys still fight like idiots even in front of Erza."

"She sort of stopped when she and that droopy-eyed bastard fought that one time."

"Gray and Erza fought?" Lucy was surprised. They always seemed calm and collected. But now that Lucy thought about it, she _did_ notice that when the rare times Erza would join all of them for lunch, she and Gray didn't really talk personally. "What happened?"

"Gray was mad Erza was being bossy. I don't know why though. Erza was always like that, strict, scary and bossy. All of us were used to it; Erza's wrath that is."

"Hmm...you mean Gray was tired of Erza?"

"That's what he told Erza. He shouted at her in front of all our friends, said something about tired of being treated like a kid. That stupid bastard." Natsu added.

"So it was like Gray rebelled?"

"Maybe. But no one ever told off Erza for being like the way she was. Gray even told her he hated her that day." Natsu said. "Never thought I'd see the day someone going up against Erza."

Lucy had no idea something so serious like that happened between them. "When did this happen?"

Natsu appeared to be in thought again. It was kind of weird seeing him in thinking mode, since the few weeks she's known him; it looked like he didn't do much thinking.

"Two years ago."

 _That's quite a long time ago,_ Lucy thought.

"They did stop talking to each other for a few weeks before Erza actually apologized. That was a day to remember! All of us probably never heard Erza saying sorry before."

"You didn't beat some sense into Gray?"

"Gray would get this serious look on his face whenever I mention Erza back when they didn't talk. It's up to them."

Lucy knew that only if she asked Gray or Erza herself would she find out whether those two were actually on good terms or not.

* * *

Erza was walking back to the school grounds after having just gotten back from the dorms. In the middle of class that morning she had realized that she had forgotten about the horn that she kept before. A few years back she had used those horns when she was animatedly cheering for Fairy Tail in basketball games. She smiled in nostalgia, remembering those days when all her friends were so happy doing fun things together.

Well, that was before she and Gray fought.

After that it was like their friends split into two. Some were on Erza's side and some were on Gray's side. Both sides tried to encourage the other to talk to each other again. The girls convinced Erza, and the guys convinced Gray. It was no use. Both were stubborn as stubborn can be.

But when Erza witnessed her childhood friends Gray and Natsu fighting seriously for the first time, not because of any idiotic challenges, but because of _her_ ; she couldn't stop them like she would normally.

Natsu was on her side for the most part, which surprised her, since she thought maybe deep down Natsu also harbored a hatred for her and her ways of discipline. She overheard their argument and was sad that after that even Natsu and Gray stopped talking to each other for a while.

It was then she decided that she'd be the first to apologize. She didn't like being the reason for her two closest friends from childhood to argue for the first time seriously. Erza was still adamant that her ways were what was best but when she apologized to Gray she mentioned none of that. In all honesty she wasn't sure how to connect with her friends other than simply joining them on their fun and telling them what to do.

But she didn't tell Gray that, and after being told off in front of all their friends that he _hated_ her, she felt like that was the sign to just stop pretending to be family. In the end, she slowly stopped talking to Gray and rarely hung out with everyone else.

Erza was walking to her locker and was surprised to find Gray leaning against it.

"Gray."

Gray nearly jumped when he heard Erza's voice. "Oh, Erza."

"Step aside."

Gray felt stupid. He stood aside watching as Erza opened her locker to put something inside. "Is that...a horn?"

The redhead closed her locker after taking out some books. "Yes. I expect a victory when I come to cheer for Fairy Tail this afternoon."

Gray could feel his sweat dropping when he thought about the last time Erza came to cheer for their team. It was kind of embarrassing, what with Erza shouting and leading the cheer and their other friends following. Not to mention she even shouted at the opposing teams that "even if they weren't destroyed by Fairy Tail, she would personally destroy them herself". She spouted some horrendous things like giving the opponents _punishment_ for winning.

Gray liked to think that they won because of their own strength and not because the opposing team was more intimidated by _Erza_ than their whole team combined. They had a hard time if the opponents were actually looking forward to get punished by Erza. The perverts.

It was back before they became popular, and the only cheerleaders were their circle of friends. That was so long ago though. Now almost the whole school watched their games, even if it was just practices. They gained a lot of fans and popularity but lost their number one cheerleader, Erza.

Thanks to Gray Fullbuster.

But Erza agreed to come today, so that was a good thing, right? _Although it might just be a one-time thing,_ Gray thought.

He didn't really know what came over him when he invited Erza out of the blue. He hadn't done anything like that since their fight. But surprisingly Erza agreed, and Gray might have misunderstood that Erza hated him. Maybe subconsciously he was trying to connect with her again and diminish the awkwardness before asking Erza for a big favor.

Yeah, that had to be it.

Cana had told him to just announce Erza as his girlfriend in front of everyone, especially when all his fan girls were around to see it. He told her that was like asking for a death wish, but she said that there was no way Erza would agree if he asked permission. Gray figured he should try asking first anyway. It didn't seem like they were on bad terms like he previously thought.

"Hey, Erza. Can I ask you something?"

Erza looked puzzled. "What?"

"Actually –"

Right at that moment, Erza's cell phone rang, interrupting Gray and diminishing his courage instantly. She held up her hand to Gray, choosing to answer whoever was calling on her phone first. Gray nodded.

Erza looked at the contact number. Gray noticed her eyes widening and her face becoming slightly pale. "What's wrong? Who is that?"

"H-Huh? Oh." She said. It was like she just noticed Gray was watching. "No one important." She hung up the call instead.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. Next period will start. I'm going back to class." She said before walking away.

Gray stood there dumbly before realizing that he was in the same class as her. In the end, he didn't get to ask.

* * *

"I'm glad you finally signed up for the book club! Now I have another friend other than Levy-chan!" Lucy said happily.

Lucy and Erza had just finished their club activities earlier than usual and were heading towards their lockers. When they arrived Erza opened hers and brought out her fan sign that read GO FAIRY TAIL, a red headband, a yellow pompom and a...horn?

 _Should I ask?_

"This was the headband and pompom I used the last time when I went to their games." Erza said.

"Even the horn?"

"Yes."

Lucy had no idea Erza was such an enthusiastic person. She learned something new about her friends every day.

She suddenly thought back in class after lunch today. Erza seemed to be in deep thought and it didn't look like she was paying attention. Something was definitely wrong. Erza never let anything get in the way of her focus in class. She was aiming for Honor Student after all.

 _I'll ask when we're back in our room_ , Lucy determined.

When they got to the gym where the practice game was held, there was already a lot of students cheering. The game had already started.

"I thought our club was the earliest to finish!" Lucy whined.

"Let's grab a seat." Erza suggested.

The score was already 66-64. Unfortunately Fairy Tail was the team that scored 64. It was already the third quarter and there were only 3 minutes left.

"I can't believe we missed half the game!" The blond exclaimed.

When they finally sat down at the bottom seats amidst Levy, Cana, Mirajane and the others cheering for Fairy Tail, Erza stood up, already wearing her Fairy Tail headband, her pompoms ready in her right hand and her horn in her left.

Erza watched their team with pride, still fired up, and it didn't look like they were giving up either. Of course, 3 minutes was plenty of time to turn the games around. She hadn't been in this sort of atmosphere in a long time. It was nostalgic.

She was about to shout out her cheer she prepared but stopped when she saw a familiar blue-haired person in the opposing team. Her face paled and her body shook nervously.

Lucy noticed Erza wasn't cheering at all, just standing there and staring. "Erza, what's wrong?" She asked worriedly, noticing Erza clenching her fists.

Erza murmured quietly but just loud enough for Lucy to hear.

"Jellal..."

* * *

 _A/N: You might have guessed that Jellal was going to show up somewhere in this. You know, I really didn't want to include Jellal in this, because whenever he's around I feel like a story just gradually becomes angsty and I wasn't quite aiming for that. But then again, I figure he's a good way to spice things up a bit._

 _Some ErLu BROTP and NaLu thrown in here because they are adorable babies. But I'm not confident writing NaLu, especially romantic NaLu, but I'll try ._

 _Please leave a review and look forward to the next chapter!_


	5. Jellal

_A/N: This should've been in chapter 3 but uhh...never mind. Thanks for all the **faves** and I've got some **new followers** so welcome aboard! Hope you guys stick to the story till the end! I got some excited reactions after confirming Jellal will be making an appearance. Hmm I don't know how to feel about that. I feel nervous now since this is the first time I'm attempting to write his character._

 _Shout out to the **reviewers** from the previous chapter! **FairyTailErza12, Genie For Your Wish, Grayza Fan, Absolute-ZERO999, Kasumi Yukimura and Nokiyoh682! Thanks so much for your feedback!**_

 _Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail._

* * *

 ** _Faking and Loving_**

 ** _Chapter 4_**

* * *

 _Fairy Academy - 68_

 _Paradise Academy - 70_

The whistle was heard, indicating the end of the third quarter of the practice basketball game. Fairy Tail only managed to add 4 points to their previous score.

"These guys are tougher than they look," Gajeel commented gruffly. They were all sitting on the bench, just drinking as much water as they could before the five-minute break was up.

"They're nothing. I'll beat them all!" Natsu shouted, still fired up.

"We're a team, dumbass." Laxus said, gulping the last bit of water in his bottle.

"We need to turn this game around." Freed said, still thinking of possible ways to increase their defense. "We shouldn't have underestimated Paradise."

"They're the ones underestimating us." Gray said, regaining his breath. "We'll get them."

The crowd was still cheering enthusiastically even when Team Fairy Tail were huddled up, discussing a new strategy.

"Gray-sama! Please do your best!"

"Gray-san you can do it!"

"GRAY-SAMA! I LOVE YOU!" Juvia Lockser's voice was louder than any other fan girl. Gray sweat dropped. How was she able to cheer for him and give a deadly glare to his other fan girls at the same time, he had no idea.

"Laxus-san don't give up!"

Gajeel grunted. "Your fan girls are seriously annoying, icy bastard."

Gray didn't say anything. He was drinking his water while unconsciously searching for a certain someone in the crowd.

 _Erza!_

Gray was surprised that she actually turned up to their game after all. How long had she been here? He didn't notice when she arrived, too focused on the game. Did she just get here? Why wasn't she cheering like she said she would? He would've noticed her presence immediately if she had just cheered like before. He didn't realize that every five-minute break they had previously he was unconsciously looking for her.

He noticed that she wasn't looking towards his direction. Not even Team Fairy Tail. She was looking off far to the other side.

 _Paradise Academy's team?_

"Gray, what are you doing? Get over here already." Laxus said.

"We're counting on you to turn this game around. Don't lose focus now." Fried added. They all admitted that Gray was Team Fairy Tail's ace.

"We don't need the droopy eyed bastard! I can do it!" Natsu protested.

Okay, everyone except Natsu admitted that Gray was their ace.

"Let's go Team Fairy Tail!" Natsu, Gajeel, Gray, Laxus and Fried brought their fists together.

* * *

Erza stood there like everyone else who was cheering. It was the final quarter already but not once did she say a word, much less cheer for Fairy Tail. She didn't even answer when Lucy asked what was wrong.

She couldn't focus on the game, just stared at the blue-haired figure that she hadn't seen in a long time. What was he doing here? She knew she was still a student of Paradise Academy but she hadn't known that he was a part of a basketball team. Was he always part of that team? Was this why he suddenly called her out of the blue at lunch? It had been a long time since they interacted with each other. She had erased his contact number, but the unknown number that called her before was undeniably Jellal's. She remembered, unfortunately.

"Only 30 seconds left! Gray's got the ball! They're going to win this!" Erza heard Lucy saying to Levy.

"Gray has to make another three-pointer!" Cana said eagerly.

Erza looked to the scoreboard. The score showed 87 - 88, with Fairy Tail scoring 87. It was a tight match. She watched as Jellal was currently defending against Gray in a one-on-one. He was the only one currently in the way of Fairy Tail winning. Gray was trying to dribble past Jellal, and he looked like he was suffering out there.

Gray had to win. He had to defeat Jellal. What was she doing this whole time? She came for Fairy Tail but was hung up on a person from an opposing team. She came to cheer for Fairy Tail. Erza took a deep breath.

She came to cheer for Gray Fullbuster.

20 seconds left.

 _"GRAY FULLBUSTER IF YOU DON'T BEAT THE CRAP OUT THAT BLUE-HAIRED BASTARD SO HELP ME I WILL MURDER YOU!"_

Silence.

The whole crowd practically turned all the way to search for the loud, intimidating voice that defeated the noisy cheers of the fan girls, the sound of the ball hitting the ground and the squeaking noises of basketball shoes on the battlefield.

Even Gray and said blue-haired bastard paused their glaring battle to look at the currently flushed Erza Scarlet, not quiet embarrassed by the crowd looking at her but for interrupting the game. She was looking at Gray, maybe for the first time since she arrived at the game.

Gray smiled.

 _What the heck does she think she's doing out there?_

He was internally laughing, suddenly reminded that Erza was just as crazy as before. Just like all of them.

Maybe she hadn't changed after all.

He had broken out of his stupor faster than the blue-haired bastard that was on him a few seconds ago and dribbled past him smoothly. Erza watched as Jellal looked baffled as he realized that Gray had just dribbled past him. It was a strange expression on his face, Erza thought.

Finally Gray made his finishing touch. He jumped slightly backwards and threw the ball in the air almost gracefully, and the ball landed in the basket smoothly. The buzzer was heard at the same time.

Gray had just done a buzzer beat. With a three-pointer no less.

The crowd erupted and cheered. Gray looked up at the score board, breathlessly.

 _Fairy Academy – 90_

 _Paradise Academy – 88_

Fairy Tail won against Paradise Academy that had been the champions in almost every major sports competition there was in Fiore. Even if it was just a practice match, the crowd cheered loudly as if it was a real game.

"FAIRY TAIL! FAIRY TAIL!"

Natsu, Gajeel, Laxus, and Fried all ran up to Gray and slapped him on the back. All of them acknowledged his final counterattack.

"You actually did it, you bastard!" Natsu cheered. It was quite surprising that he wasn't whining about not being able to make the last basket.

"That was a great game." Fried commented. "It's too bad the coach wasn't here to see it."

"That Gildarts bastard. What the heck is doing right now, not showing up?" Natsu complained.

Gildarts Clive was Fairy Tail's basketball coach plus math's teacher. He had a record of not showing to practices most of the time, leaving Fairy Tail to train by themselves.

"He had a hard time convincing Paradise to agree for a practice match but in the end he wasn't even here to see the game." Laxus said frowning.

"We might not have won if Erza wasn't here actually." Fried commented again turning to Gray. "She did a great job of distracting that ace from the opposing team."

Gray didn't say anything. He was happy but he wasn't quite proud that he had been head-butting the blue-haired bastard and was having a hard time. He really needed to polish his skills. He had to admit to himself that if it weren't for Erza causing the confusion that she had just now, they might have lost.

"I'm fucking tired." Gajeel grunted, but nonetheless the team could tell he was happy. They all agreed with him.

The whistle was heard and they saw Paradise Academy's team coming up to them. They shook hands with Fairy Tail being awfully respectful for the first time. Gray noticed that the blue-haired bastard Erza was referring to was gripping his hands a little rougher.

Fairy Tail's circle of friends was already running up to the team, offering words of congratulations to everyone. Levy had gone up to Gajeel enthusiastically; Mirajane, Cana, Elfman, Evergreen and Bickslow were praising Laxus and Fried and Lisanna was slapping Natsu on the back.

"Erza! Let's go too!" Lucy encouraged.

Erza's foot had been stuck on the ground. She was nervous.

Jellal was _right there_.

She still hadn't figured out what could he be possibly doing here in a basketball team. But then she steeled herself. She came for Fairy Tail. She came because Gray invited her. Finally, Erza clenched her fist and marched up to their friends, with Lucy right behind her.

"Lucy!" Natsu ran up to Lucy. "Did you see me?" He asked, grinning. His hand was up, ready for a high five.

The blond responded his high-five with a cheerful smile. "Yeah! You guys were amazing!" Then Natsu started bragging that he was the best with Lucy pointing out that Gray was the star in that game. Natsu of course whined endlessly and the gang laughed at their antics.

The fan girls finally walked up to Gray and congratulated him in a very "fan-girling" manner, if that made any sense. Juvia was especially happy, watching her beloved Gray-sama the entire time. She continued her endless praise, with Gray just nodding and muttering "Thanks."

"Gray!"

Gray turned to see Erza approaching him. "Erza."

It was slightly amusing to see the fan girls surrounding Gray slowly clearing and making a path for Erza to walk towards him. It wasn't like Erza's fierceness was forgotten. It was legendary in Fairy Academy.

She smiled at her dark-haired friend proudly. This was the second time in a while seeing this smile on Erza. Gray's heart skipped a beat.

That was strange.

"It seemed like you were really afraid of getting murdered by me." Erza said smiling.

"I have to be alive for our next big game you know." Gray responded, smiling back. "Thought you weren't gonna show up."

Since when did they start talking with each other comfortably like this? It was like magic. They both didn't realize it happening.

They also didn't realize their friends and Gray's fan girls were just staring at them. Juvia didn't even cut in, which was strange since she'd always try her best to interrupt Gray's conversation with other girls.

But then again, it was just the scary friend of Gray named Erza. Juvia didn't interrupt Gray with his friends, even if they were female.

"I keep my promises." Erza said sternly.

"You promised?" Gray didn't remember her saying that.

"I promised myself I'd be here." She said, causing Gray's smile to broaden. "I'm glad I came. You were really amazing."

A swell of pride rose in his chest. It was a different than how he would usually feel when his fan girls, or even his teammates would praise him. He wasn't sure why; maybe because _Erza_ giving praise was so rare.

That had to be it. Erza always used to put him down back when they were kids after all.

Their small moment was interrupted when Cana suddenly slung an arm around Erza's shoulder. She said it loudly for all of them to hear. "If it weren't for Erza, you would have totally made the team lose, Gray."

Everyone laughed hearing Cana's remark to which Erza smiled again and Gray turned his head away, slightly blushing.

"I would've snatched the ball from Gray and shot a three-pointer myself!" Natsu shouted.

"Shut up, Natsu." Lucy and Lisanna both said at the same time to which the said pink-haired guy muttered, "You all hate me."

Their celebratory cheers slowly died down as a member of Paradise Academy's team approached them.

"Gray Fullbuster, you were a brilliant player."

Gray turned to see the blue-haired bastard Erza was referring to. He was his rival for the most part of the game. "You know my name."

"It has been screamed and shouted throughout the whole game by your fans," The blue-haired guy said obviously. "Erza's shout was especially unforgettable."

Gray frowned. He didn't like that tone. He talked about Erza as if he was familiar with her. "Who are you?"

Erza on the other hand, flinched at the familiar tone that the blue-haired male used. She clenched her fist and looked straight towards the member of Paradise Academy.

"Jellal Fernandes. Pleasure to meet you." Jellal introduced himself.

He turned to Erza and smiled, to which Gray didn't miss the way Erza clenched her fists. Her expression was stern, almost emotionless, but Gray knew that wasn't the case.

"Isn't he that...?"

"You mean Number One genius student in all of Fiore?"

" _That_ Jellal Fernandes?"

"Isn't Erza-san competing with him for that title?"

"I heard that Erza-san was always second to him!"

Murmurs were heard from the crowd present. Everyone was still watching Jellal and Gray as if waiting for something interesting to happen.

Lucy couldn't help but be concerned for Erza. She didn't miss the familiar tone of Jellal and the way he was looking at her. It was calm but Erza most definitely was not.

"Hey Erza, you know this guy?" Natsu asked something that Lucy wanted to ask too.

Erza stared at Jellal. She was no longer nervous. "He was my...old friend."

"That's cold, Erza." Jellal said, still keeping that calm appearance. "And not quite the truth."

Erza frowned at him, wishing that he would keep his mouth shut.

As much as Gray was curious with their relationship, he didn't want this blue-haired guy to make Erza uncomfortable any longer. "Thanks for the praise. We're looking forward to play you guys next time."

Jellal chuckled. "Paradise Academy will send our team this year but unfortunately we won't play against each other, Gray."

"Why's that?" Gajeel asked, tired of his round about ways of talking.

"I'm not an official member of the team. I'm only a replacement." Jellal said.

"Eh, why? You were the best player out of all of your team members!" Lisanna piped up. Everyone looked at her weirdly. "What? It's true." Her voice went smaller.

"I only offered to play against Fairy Tail to see Erza today." Jellal said smoothly. "She has been avoiding me recently."

Everyone turned to Erza who was clenching her fists so hard it almost turned white. Gray definitely didn't like how tense Erza was around this Jellal-bastard. Erza shouldn't be like this. She was always confident, calm and collected.

 _This guy isn't just some old friend,_ Gray thought.

"I'm not avoiding you if I have no reason to see you." Erza said sharply.

"But I have plenty reasons."

"Whatever reason you have to still be in contact with me can be resolved by other means." Erza shot back. "There is no reason to go out of your way to see me personally."

"I missed you Erza."

The sound of an almost-collective gasp was heard in the room. The fangirls of Gray especially, were looking at Erza as if expecting some sort of fantasy reaction.

"That was kinda smooth."

"No kidding."

"That Jellal guy is kinda cute too."

"Gray-sama's no. 1!"

Erza lost her calm, cold expression. Her eyes widened slightly, not able to believe Jellal could spout such nonsense in front of so many people.

The girls were just staring at Erza, curious at what she would say. Lucy was especially concerned. Natsu just stayed quiet, confused by what was happening. His team members also opted to stay quiet, not sure if they should stay here any longer.

It was all very awkward for Erza's friends that were watching.

"That's a plausible reason for wanting to see you right?" Jellal asked.

Erza couldn't read him. He was almost, _hopeful._

 _Does he really know what he's saying right now?_

"Are you like Erza's ex-boyfriend or something?" Natsu asked carelessly. Lucy turned to him, couldn't quite believe that Natsu of all people asked that. But she was assuming things too, not that she could actually have the guts to say it out loud.

 _Natsu you're an idiot!_

Lucy wasn't the only one who thought that. Everyone in the crowd pretty much assumed the same thing. But Natsu was the only one stupid enough to voice it out loud.

Erza didn't immediately answer. She hesitated, though she didn't know why. Just when she was about to just deny the statement that Natsu so bravely decided to voice out (she'd have his head later), Jellal answered easily, "That's correct."

Everone gasped again. It was irritating, to be honest, especially since Jellal was not the type to admit these kind of things publicly. Erza wasn't sure what he was planning.

"When did you become so publicly open with these kinds of things?" Erza asked irritated.

Lucy noticed that she didn't try to deny at all.

 _She didn't tell me she had an ex-boyfriend,_ Lucy thought. _It's not really a secret that I'd want to share either but..._

Lucy really didn't know anything about Erza. She looked around to her other friends to see that everyone was still pretty much shocked about this. She wasn't the only friend who just found out. She couldn't help but notice Gray's reaction. He looked more irritated than shocked like everyone else. She wasn't sure. He looked concerned too. Did he already know?

"I'm quite tired of hiding that's all." Jellal responded vaguely.

"You didn't have a problem with that before." Erza understood perfectly.

"You know that's not true, Erza."

Erza wanted to punch him. She really did. But causing a commotion would surely risk her chance of perfect behavior to win the Honor Student Award. Not to mention there was a crowd of people right here in the gym to witness it and report her actions.

"I personally think you should take your lovers quarrel somewhere else." Gray said shrugging, but it was still loud enough for everyone to hear. "Or even better..."He said, his expression almost darkening, "how about you just leave since its obvious Erza doesn't want to see you, huh Jellal?"

Erza turned to Gray and stared in confusion. He usually didn't like to be caught up in conflicts. She expected him to just leave since it was obvious Jellal wasn't intending to talk to him about basketball anymore. She noticed that his other teammates have already left. Except Natsu that is. He was still just standing around, staring at Jellal too.

Maybe Gray was backing her up. Maybe he was concerned.

Maybe, he still thought of her as a friend.

"I agree." Lucy piped up. She couldn't stand Erza not being _Erza._

"Ex-boyfriends should stay exes." Cana commented.

There was a chorus of the girls' (particularly Mirajane, Levy and Lisanna) following up Lucy and Cana's argument.

"Fairy Tail is still gonna kick your ass!" Natsu shouted all of a sudden. Lucy sighed.

Jellal smiled, almost thoughtfully. "I was just worried about Erza. It was a rough break-up. "

Erza was full-on glaring now. How dare he pretend that he cared? How dare he mention something like that so casually? Since when did he become such a...such a jerk? Was he purposely trying to get some form of extreme reaction from her? Did he want her to cry? To test her temper and patience? What did he want? Because Erza would gladly consider if he were to just _get the fuck out of here and out of my sight._

 _Don't let him see you cry. Don't let him see you're hurt!_

"She claims she's fine by herself. Erza had always been stubborn. I'm just worried." Jellal continued looking at the scarlet-haired girl as if he actually sympathized with her. Erza could feel her eyes water and tears threatening to fall. Her body was trembling and her fists had never been clenched so hard. She couldn't focus on anything around her. She didn't hear the crowd murmuring at all.

 _Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you-_

"She doesn't need your fucking concern."

Erza was surprised to hear the rough voice was actually coming from Gray Fullbuster.

Strange, just like that her tears were almost like it was just swallowed up. The usually calm and collected girl looked up at Gray almost in awe. Erza was strangely touched he sort of defended her despite his use of strong language. It might have hit her harder than it was supposed to because it was _Gray_ and she was sure _he didn't like her all this time._

"T-That's right! Erza's got her friends right here." Lucy piped up.

There was another chorus of agreements from the girls. Natsu was just keeping quiet but it was obvious on his face he had a problem with this blue-haired bastard that was spouting stuff he didn't understand but still making Erza mad. That was wrong in his book.

Jellal just chuckled. "It must have been hard on you all this time, Erza. After all, nobody could have taken care of you better than I could."

Erza was really about to murder him right there but was stopped when a strong arm slithered around her waist and pulled her body closer to the owner. Erza turned her head and tilted it slightly to see the person. The only sign of her surprise was the slight widening of her eyes but she was more puzzled than shocked. She did not pull away.

"I would appreciate it if you could stop talking about my girlfriend as if you cared."

There was a two-second silence before literally everyone gasped; even Gray's friends' gasps were as loud as the fan girls.

"WHATTTTT?!"

Erza's jaw hung open as she registered what her dark-haired, childhood friend had just said. _Girlfriend?_

Amidst all the confusion and flabbergasted expressions, nobody in the crowd noticed the smirk on Cana's face.

 _Seems like Gray's brave yet idiotic tendencies were finally making a comeback._

* * *

 _A/N: Jellal is so OOC I feel like punching myself. But I'm sort of basing his character from when he first appeared in the manga. So yeah have a jerk-face Jellal! He won't stay a jerk though (hopefully) xD_

 _AND hopefully after this chapter things pick up quicker. Thank you so much for your honest opinions from the previous chapter._

 _Looking forward to see some feedback! Leave a review please~_

 _-11:52PM_

 _-12/9/15_


	6. The Deal

_A/N:_ _Shout out to the reviewers from previous chapters, **Celestial Titania, Absolute-ZERO999, Grayza Fan, FairyTailErza12, Genie For Your Wish, Dfields3710, shelvesinthecloset and CANNONBALL.**_

 _Thanks a million to the new **followers, faves and reviewers!** You guys make me so happy and give me motivation to continue this fic featuring a very (sadly) unpopular and underrated ship!_

 _Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail. Mashima-sensei owns it and he is responsible for making me extremely happy with NaLu but extremely depressed with the lack of Gray and Erza interaction. I just want them to talk privately and look in each other's direction, is that too much to ask for?_

 _Anyways, hope you enjoy!_

* * *

 ** _Faking and Loving_**

 ** _Chapter 5_**

* * *

"I would appreciate it if you could stop talking about my girlfriend as if you cared."

There was a two-second silence before literally everyone gasped; even Gray's friends' gasps were as loud as the fan girls.

"WHATTTTT?!"

Erza's jaw was slightly hung open as she registered what her dark-haired, childhood friend had just said. _Girlfriend?_

Amidst all the confusion and flabbergasted expressions, nobody in the crowd noticed the smirk on Cana Alberona's face.

Jellal failed to hide his surprise after hearing of this new information. Nevertheless, something wasn't quite right. He had his suspicions.

Meanwhile, Gray continued to hold Erza as if the scarlet-haired girl really belonged to him. He was painfully aware that he might regret this, but on the positive side, Erza didn't look like she was about to murder him. She looked more curious than angry. He wasn't sure.

But he was glad Erza didn't push him away. Or else that would be painfully embarrassing.

"Gray-san! Since when?

"That's impossible! Gray-sama how could you!"

"I think I'm going to faint!"

"Everyone shut up! Gray-sama, please explain to Juvia!"

Everyone was surprised to hear Juvia Lockser shouting. They turned to her, who was known for being Gray Fullbuster's number one devoted fan. Many were quite surprised that she wasn't bawling her eyes out or rampaging with a deadly aura. But she definitely looked heartbroken, and Lucy was sure she had never seen Juvia look so calm yet heartbroken at the same time.

Gray sighed. This was going to be even more complicated. Why did he actually take Cana's advice to confess the lie in front of everyone?

Hoping that Erza wouldn't murder him after she murdered Jellal (she still looked madder at Jellal than him) he said, "We've just dated recently. That's all anybody needs to know."

 _There. That should be good enough._

The gym room was filled with chatter, all discussing about this development that honestly no one had seen coming.

Except Cana of course.

Gray looked at Erza from the corner of his eye and was surprised to see she showed no signs of killing intent towards him. Did she actually hear what he just lied to in in front of everyone?

"I'm curious that Erza managed to find a replacement for me though," Jellal said, his tone almost mocking to Erza's ears.

For some reason, Gray was more ticked than Erza was.

"You should leave now, Jellal. We have nothing to discuss." Erza said her tone sharp as ever, ignoring Jellal's remark.

"You mean, nothing to discuss in public? Or in front of your boyfriend?" Jellal asked, his tone as if he was teasing, but Erza knew it was anything but.

"We've nothing to discuss, _period_."

There was an incredibly tense atmosphere between the two, one that didn't go unnoticed by anyone, even though the crowd present was still surprised by Gray's announcement.

"Very well. I will take my leave then." Jellal said, giving Erza a smile that she could not decipher and giving a fleeting glare towards Gray, who returned it with his own.

They watched the blue-haired student of Paradise Academy walk out of the gym until he was out of sight. That was when the silence drastically turned noisy again with Gray's fan girls surrounding him like flies, asking him questions after another.

One actually accidentally pushed Erza to the side, the scarlet-haired girl free of Gray's arms. She was slightly annoyed but decided to just let it go. She wanted to leave as soon as possible, regretting that she had gone out of her way to join in a crowd when she could have avoided all this drama and stay in her room studying.

She regretted seeing Jellal again the most.

"Erza! Wait for me!" Lucy called.

Gray finally noticed Erza was intending to leave. Didn't she want an explanation? He was expecting her to slap him at least. He was ready for the worst case scenario but apparently Erza didn't care at all. This wasn't like Erza at all.

 _She's probably really bothered by that Jellal-bastard,_ Gray thought.

The next thing he knew, he was already escaping through the fan girls, ignoring the calls from them and his friends and ran to catch up to Erza faster than Lucy. He grabbed her wrist and spun her around to face him. There was no doubt that she was startled.

"I need to talk to you." Gray said, his face serious.

Erza frowned. "I'm tired. We can talk tomorrow." She tried to pull away but the grip on her wrist was firm and strong.

"Don't you want an explanation?" Gray asked confused.

Erza sighed. She really did want to interrogate Gray for putting her in this confusing mess, but what she wanted more was to get back to her room, sleep and forget that she saw her ex-boyfriend and fought with him in public.

"Fine. Talk." Erza said finally. It was better to put this to an end as soon as possible.

"Look, I know you're mad but..." Gray couldn't finish his sentence as he could practically feel the burning stares of his fan girls (Juvia was definitely included) and the curiosity raiding of his friends. No doubt they were eavesdropping.

"...you know what, let's get out of here first."

* * *

Gray had managed to convince Erza to leave the school grounds to talk in private. It wasn't easy at first but as soon as he mentioned that he would take her out, she immediately recommended a cafe a few blocks from the school.

"I take it you come here often?" Gray asked as they managed to find an empty table by the window and sat down.

"Nope. I usually don't have the time, so whatever you say better be worth it."

"Hey! You're the one who came to the game yourself!" Gray accused.

"After you invited me, yes."

"You didn't have to-"

"If I didn't you would have lost to Jellal. You were lucky I was there."

What Erza said was so painfully true, but that didn't mean he had to admit it in front of her. "I could totally have taken him down without your _presence_."

Great. This wasn't what Gray had in mind. Now they were arguing.

"May I take your order?"

A waitress had come up to them and interrupted their argument which Gray was thankful for.

"You're paying, right?" Erza asked him bluntly.

"Yeah, yeah whatever." It wasn't a big deal anyway. He had a lot of cash to spare.

But once Erza had listed her orders, he became slightly worried for the amount of cash left in his wallet. To spare the bill that he obviously was responsible for paying in the end, he only ordered a cup of coffee.

When the order came it was definitely a strange sight to see. He only had one cup of coffee but Erza had four slices of cake, all of which were of different flavors, and a tall cup of strawberry milkshake, all of which she had devoured in a particularly slow fashion, no doubt she was savoring the taste.

Gray almost smiled. Apparently Erza's love for cake had not died, ever since they were younger. He was ultimately hit with the memories of their childhood, all of them enjoying a picnic in the park by the river that Gildarts, Cana's dad who was also their current coach/maths teacher had taking them out on. It was one of the memories that Gray treasured most since his mother passed. It was the first time he was sure he and Erza were friends. When he couldn't finish his slice of cake that day; Erza who was new to their gang (him and Cana) at the time, had asked him politely if she could finish his slice. It was one of the first times they could talk civilly, without him threatening her for an arm wrestling match and her threatening him if she won she could punch him three times in the face.

"What?"

"Huh?" Gray was startled.

"You're staring and it's creepy."

He frowned but no doubt his blush was making an appearance. "I wasn't-"

"So, what was all that about?" Erza asked, wanting to get straight to the point. _"Girlfriend?"_

Gray noticed that she had finished her cake and was just slurping her strawberry milkshake.

He coughed, gathering up his courage. This was it. He was going to ask her for an impossible favor, one of which would be hard to explain to the school if Erza turned him down without a second thought.

"It is what is it is."

"Get to the point, Gray."

"I want you to be my girlfriend." He blurted.

Hearing those words actually come from his mouth of all people, Erza couldn't help but choke on her strawberry milkshake. Gray was going to get up and try to help but she quickly slapped his hand away and recovered.

"H-Hey!"

"What did you say? I was sure you were playing some sort of practical joke to get a rise from Jellal but you're serious?" Erza questioned, her glare darkening and no doubt her temper was rising too.

Woah, that didn't come out right. That was not a happy look on her face, Gray noted. He actually expected this sort of reaction from the beginning but he was surprised Erza had such a late reaction.

"L-Look, it's not what you think. I wanted to ask you for a favor."

"Your confession to me is a favor?"

"N-NO! It's not a confession! Don't get me wrong!"

"Good. If it was a confession I'd reject you in a heartbeat."

 _Ouch, Erza, you really don't know how to hold back. What a way to sting a man's pride._

"What favor, Gray? Hurry up and tell me so I can go back." Erza said, glancing at her watch.

"So that means you'll help me?" Gray asked his tone eager and hopeful.

"To pretend to be your girlfriend?"

"How did you – "

"It's obvious where this conversation is going. So, is that it?"

Gray rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "Y-Yeah. You're not mad?"

"I am mad. You could have informed me of this first instead of blurting out lies in front of my ex-boyfriend."

"Well you don't have to clear it up to him or anything."

Erza thought about this for a second. "Despite humiliating me in front of my friends and a part of the student body, I will thank you."

"Thank me?"

"I relished the expression he had when he found out that I got over him." Erza said simply.

"So because of that you're not mad?"

"No, not much."

"I never knew you had a boyfriend." Gray said.

"Neither did anybody else so you're not a special case." Erza said pointedly. "Refrain from talking about him anymore." She said sternly.

Gray nodded. That was one forbidden thing to talk about, he noted. Even though he was curious about the guy, how he and Erza met, how long were they together and why she hasn't told anyone. Maybe he could find out if he asked Lucy. No doubt Lucy was also surprised to hear this information.

"But the next day you'll clear this up and tell everyone that it was a joke and we're just friends."

 _So we really are friends?_ Gray wanted to ask. "That's the thing. I want your help being my _fake_ girlfriend." He said. "That means in front of the school."

Erza crossed her arms. "You have to tell me what for, why have you chosen me, and for how long do I have to keep up this farce."

"You're being strangely calm about all this."

"Even if your request is out of this world," Erza looked down, "I am happy that you are still talking to me like this."

Gray was always surprised at the bluntness of Erza's words, but this was on another level. It was sincere and honest and...Gray wanted to clutch his chest for some reason.

"W-Well, you know, it's no big deal. I couldn't go to anyone else for this."

"I'd like to hurry up and find out the reason now Gray."

Gray sighed. He told Erza all about his predicament, about how he wanted to date someone like any other normal guy his age (Natsu wasn't quite normal), but he couldn't because despite how handsome he was (Erza scoffed at that), every girl seemed to not be satisfied with him and eventually dumped him. He told her what happened to his previous girlfriends to which Erza stated that was quite immature of said mystery person. He was even losing his popularity against Loke, and he told her about the rumors circling around him that "dating the Great Gray Fullbuster was a curse."

Erza chuckled at that.

"It's not funny! Someone is totally against me and is sabotaging my girlfriends. They're too scared to answer if I ask. I haven't had a nice girlfriend in two months already."

"So why me? You want me to investigate whoever out there is cursing you?"

"Yeah. And I know you're not the type to get scared, so whatever happens to you as my next 'girlfriend', you won't be afraid to tell me who's been doing this. I'm sure it's the same person. It shouldn't be that hard."

"Does anybody know about this?"

"Well, Loke and Cana. She's the one that suggested you actually, because she knew you could handle it and I agreed. She did tell me you might not help because you were busy, but I couldn't ask Mira-chan or anyone else. Either they were dating, or they just liked someone else. Cana's already dating someone."

"You automatically assume I was single."

"Well, it's true isn't it?" But he really didn't expect that at one point she actually _had_ a boyfriend.

"Fair enough. What about Lucy? She's single."

Gray grimaced. "Lucy doesn't need any more enemies she already has. There were already rumors that I was secretly dating Lucy the day she transferred, and Juvia's been getting on her case ever since."

"Juvia Lockser? What do you mean?"

"Lucy Heartfilia is apparently Juvia's number one love rival. That's what she told Lucy a bunch of times, even in front of me."

"She's really in love with you, that Juvia girl. You should give her a chance."

"Claiming to love me, then hurting my friends later isn't really the way to get a guy to like you back." Gray said pointedly.

Erza was surprised at this. "Lucy never told me about this. But she told you?"

"She probably didn't want to bother you or something."

Erza felt guilty of all the times she said to Lucy she was too busy studying. Lucy was her friend and yet, she couldn't even spare the time to listen to her problems. Lucy always told her she was having fun ever since she transferred. Could Juvia be the one that was sabotaging all of Gray's ex-girlfriends? She was bothering Lucy, even though Lucy was just a friend of Gray. Erza didn't really know Juvia that well; all she heard about her was that she was famous as Gray's number one fan.

Not that Erza cared about any of his fans or ex-girlfriends before. But now after she established that she and Gray were on speaking terms and were still in fact friends, she could try to help as fast as she could. Hopefully she wouldn't lose any of her studying time.

"So you're in?"

Erza nodded. She was sure if she helped, maybe Lucy's school life would be more peaceful. She was determined to ask Lucy later on what actually Juvia had done.

"But – " Gray was anxious. Did she change her mind? "There is no way I'm doing this without some sort of benefit. I'm putting my pride on the line here." Erza said.

"Hey! Being the Great Gray Fullbuster's girlfriend is every woman's dream!"

"You're still calling yourself the Great Gray?" Erza said smirking. "You're still as proud as ever. I thought we established which one of us was better."

Gray didn't want to remember those times of pure defeat back in their childhood days.

"What do I get in return?" Erza asked.

Gray thought about this. She was aiming for the Honor Student Award right? That must mean a part of her was aiming for the one million jewels. She must be strapped for cash. That was something Gray could easily handle.

"I could pay you." He suggested.

"How much?"

"It depends on what I'll ask you to do."

"What?"

"You know, the things you should do or act in front of everyone to make it look like you're my legitimate girlfriend."

Erza nodded. She could pull this off. "I'll be the one to determine the limits of what we do then."

"You mean – "

"As long as you don't ask me to kiss you, then I will do it."

Gray blushed at her honesty. "Hey! I'm a great kisser!"

"I do not wish to find out in any way, Gray."

"Yeah well, I wouldn't ask you to kiss me either." Gray was totally feeling his pride being stepped on. Erza always had a way to do that. She really hadn't changed.

"Payment is not enough though."

"What? What else do you want me to do then?"

"You have to promise me that you won't bother me after 7:00pm. I have a very important goal to accomplish."

Gray figured that was when she didn't want anyone bothering her with her studying. "Alright."

"I also want cake."

Gray sighed. She had too many conditions. But this won't be for long. They were using each other after all. He could do that at least. "Fine, help me out and I could even treat you to cake everyday if you want until this is over. That is, only if we could pull this off."

Erza's eyes sparkled. She was definitely having a hard time hiding her smile. Delicious cake for free every day? That was an offer she couldn't resist. She held out her hand, ready to shake his when he interrupted her.

"One more important thing we have to agree on." He said.

It was reasonable that if she had her conditions, he would have some too. "What? I know that we'll end this after I figure out whoever is behind this curse of yours."

Gray ticked at the word "curse." "That's not it. You gotta promise me you won't fall for me or some shit like that."

Erza gave a small smile. "That is understandable. Also impossible but that's no problem."

"It's not impossible! You might fall for my charm – "

"Assuming you actually _have_ a charm." Erza interrupted.

"Hey! Why do you gotta keep insulting me?"

She didn't answer his question of course. "In return, you have to promise you won't like me too." _And after all this we can start being real friends again like old times._ Erza added in her head with hope.

Gray crossed his arms. "That's even _more_ impossible, so that's not a problem. You aren't my type."

"I'm glad to hear that."

She was _the_ Erza Scarlet after all. She was _so_ not his type. He tried to insult her in return but she looked like she could care less. "So, we have a deal?" He held out his hand.

The scarlet-haired girl reached for his hand across the table and shook it.

"Deal."

* * *

 _A/N: Hopefully I can update faster next time. Are they OOC? Don't forget to tell me what you think! And Jellal might not make an appearance until 2 or 3 more chapters. Maybe._

 _Anyways, thanks for reading and hope you have the time to leave a review. Till next time~_

 _-1:11AM_

 _-21/9/15_


	7. The First Act

_A/N: I've reached 1,600 views! That's a good thing right? I dunno but I'm still happy._

 _I've been getting more Grayza feels than Nalu lately despite so much Nalu in the manga it's crazy! And Gray/Erza/Jellal is officially my favorite love triangle in Fairy Tail fanfiction. Cmon there's so much potential serious angst and drama than Lucy/Natsu/Lisanna or Gray/Juvia/Lyon! Huh, if only they were a real love triangle._

 _Anyways, shout out to the lovely and sexy reviewers from the previous chapter_ _ **PinkKoala213, Absolute-ZERO999,**_ _the wonderful_ _ **Guest, FairyTailErza12, SeoSakuraChan**_ _(she's my little sister I forced her to read this and now she likes Grayza WOOP!)_ _and_ _ **CANNONBALL.**_

 ** _Thanks for the new follows and faves!_** _Welcome aboard and hope you guys enjoy this story till the end!_

* * *

 _ **Faking and Loving**_

 _ **Chapter 6**_

* * *

Where was she? Erza wasn't even picking up her phone.

Lucy was pacing back and forth in her and Erza's shared room, her smartphone was gripped tightly in her hand, wondering why Erza wasn't back yet from wherever she had gone. She glanced at the clock on the wall. It was already way past 9:00pm, and for someone like Erza Scarlet, 9:00pm was considered late. This was way past her late study time which usually began right after dinner at 7:00pm, and now Lucy was worried; not just because it wasn't like Erza to miss valuable, quality study time, but her scarlet-haired friend had been whisked away by Gray of all people, before she could get the chance to talk.

She thought about it again. Apparently Gray Fullbuster wasn't just some "person." Her next-door neighbor seat mate was her roommate's boyfriend.

Boyfriend.

How did that even happen? It was true that maybe Lucy had some suspicions that their relationship was slightly different that the others in Natsu's circle of friends, mainly because whenever they hung out together and the rare times that Erza actually joined, Lucy had never seen Erza and Gray even look each other in the eye. Erza talked to her most of the times, and responded whenever the others like Mirajane and Cana beckoned her to join the conversation, but never in the one month since she transferred did she see them comfortably interacting with each other. She assumed they just talked to each other when necessary, because Erza was like that. She wasn't the type to chat and gossip for no reason after all. She assumed they were just awkward friends since Natsu said they used to fight, but her initial instincts were right after all. There really was something fishy about those two.

Who knew it was actually because they had been hiding a relationship with each other?

But why would they? And how did it happen when she heard from Natsu that they had been estranged from each other ever since they fought two years ago? They made up secretly? And Gray even said they just recently started dating.

What did recently mean anyway? A week ago? Two weeks? A month?

Did they become a couple just before Lucy transferred?

"Ugh it's no use assuming. I'll ask her when she gets back!" Lucy muttered to herself.

After Gray whisked Erza away to who-knows-where, there was a big commotion in the gym, especially from Gray's fan girls. It was tough, especially since all of them surrounded _Lucy_ and asked _her_ about their ultimate exhibitionist prince, the _Great_ Gray Fullbuster's relationship with the scary, fearsome red-haired ex-student council member Erza Scarlet.

How was she supposed to know? Erza hadn't told her anything and while Lucy knew there must be some sort of reason (Erza was a person who always had reasons behind her actions, that she knew), but she couldn't help but feel disappointed and a tad bit depressed that Erza had kept it from her, when the blond girl had thought they had become best friends.

On the other hand, Lucy could be free from the rumors that she and Gray were more than friends if it was official that Gray already had a girlfriend, and said girl was his childhood friend Erza Scarlet.

Was she happy about this news? No doubt she was. Gray and Erza were her friends after all, and if they were happy, so was she; especially since she'd no longer be dubbed as Juvia Lockser's number one love rival. Ugh.

Her thoughts went to Juvia. When Gray made his shocking announcement and dragged only Erza out of the room, Lucy expected the blue-haired girl to shriek, yell, and flip a table or something akin to that.

But she didn't.

The fan girls questioned Lucy endlessly, and while Lucy insisted she also knew nothing about their secret relationship, the fan girls didn't stop. It was only after Natsu who had yelled at the crowd of girls to scram and stop bothering Lucy, did the girls finally back off. Lucy was confused as to why Natsu was so mad, but then she figured he was probably pissed that the fan girls shoved him away harsh enough so that they could surround Lucy.

What was surprising was that Juvia wasn't in the crowd of girls who interrogated her. In fact, Lucy didn't see Juvia at all after Gray and Erza had left. The blond had asked Cana and Mirajane, but they too didn't notice when and where she had disappeared to.

" _Why are you worried about the girl that constantly stalks and threatens you to stay away from her Gray-sama?" Cana had asked her after she was finally free from the fan girls._

" _Uh -"_

" _\- And that announced to everyone in the assembly you're her ultimate rival-in-love, pretty much making you the enemy of the majority of the female students in love with Gray, that includes Gray's exes?" Levy continued._

" _That isn't – "_

" _And the same girl that mixed white pepper in your milk just the other day?" Lisanna added._

" _Woah okay, hold up! Now we don't even have proof that Juvia did that!" Lucy exclaimed._

" _Juvia was walking right next to you and muttering "Serves you right!" And loudly at that." Lisanna said pointedly._

 _Lucy grimaced. "I just want to make sure she's okay. And that she's not out there doing anything crazy." Lucy noticed Juvia was quiet and almost emotionless. That could not be a good sign, especially for someone who was so enthusiastic in beating her out for Gray's attention._

" _You're so kind, Lucy." Mirajane commented with a smile._

So nobody knew where she went. Lucy had a feeling Juvia was terribly heartbroken and alone. She couldn't help but feel sorry for her. She didn't know what heartbreak felt like in her 17 years, and she was sure leaving her parents to study in a boarding school wouldn't really count as heartbreak, despite the fact that she might have been a little homesick and depressed at first.

The sound of a lock and door handle turning was heard and ultimately broke Lucy out of her thoughts.

"Erza! Where were you? I was worried!"

"Sorry, I was on a date."

Lucy's eyes widened. "O-Oh...I see..."

Erza hurried changing her clothes. She couldn't wait to just sleep. Today was definitely not a normal day. She glanced over at Lucy who was curiously staring at her.

"You must have a lot of questions." Erza said as she sat down on her bed.

Lucy nodded. "So...that means it's okay if I asked?"

Erza sighed. "Go on."

The blond took a deep breath. "You were on a date?"

"Yes."

"With Gray?"

"Yes."

"So it's true he's your boyfriend?"

"Yes."

"For how long?"

Erza took a deep breath. She was lying to her close friend. This is temporary, she reminded herself. "Only a week ago."

"Really?!"

Erza gave a small smile. "It's _that_ surprising?"

"Of course it is! I mean, I didn't notice you guys liked each other...I mean, you never talked about him before." Lucy noted curiously. "And since I became friends with Gray, he's never said anything nice when I asked about you the first time. I mean, he doesn't look like he was talking about a girl he liked."

Erza clenched her fists. "What did he say?"

Lucy stiffened. Erza's mood looked like it was darkened. But Erza wanted an answer. "Well, he said stuff like "Be careful around Erza, and "she's a monster when she's angry, her temper's too high for her own good."

 _That little..._ Erza couldn't wait to deal with him tomorrow. That boy had a lot of explaining to do.

"So how did you guys get together?" Lucy asked.

Thanks to Gray's badmouthing of her, it wouldn't make sense if she lied that Gray was the one who confessed. She really was putting her pride on the line.

"I confessed to him and asked him out." Erza said with a straight face.

No doubt Lucy was surprised. But then again, Erza always had been very blunt. "Wow! Sorry I never noticed you liked him Erza. I always thought you guys were awkward with each other ever since I got to know you." Lucy said honestly.

Erza paused. So Lucy did notice the awkward tension between the two. She was really worried now that they wouldn't be able to pull this off. It might be easy to fake in front of Lucy, but no doubt that it would be hard to explain to their old friends that have known them for a long time and knew about their fight two years ago. Would they believe Erza if she lied to them that she had liked Gray secretly for a long time?

She had a feeling they wouldn't believe her. Especially Natsu. Maybe she could tell Natsu that they were just pretending.

" _Don't tell anyone. If I want this to work I can't risk anyone overhearing and spilling it out to my ex-girlfriends. Juvia might find out and who knows what she'll do."_

"I was the one who liked Gray for a while." She managed to say. "He knew about it but only recently he accepted my confession." She was surprised she was able to lie about something like that so smoothly. Huh. Maybe this pretending thing won't be so hard after all.

Lucy brightened. "OH! So that's why you guys were always awkward around each other! That's so cute! I'm happy for you guys! I hope you stay together forever."

Erza faked a smile. Hopefully they could get this act over with quickly so she'd feel less guilty about lying to her friend. "We're just trying out this dating thing. It might not even work out."

"Why is that? If you guys like each other, you'll make it work somehow."

Erza had to lie. If Gray and Erza ever succeeded in their real objective which was to find the culprit sabotaging Gray's ex-girlfriends and ultimately needed to end their fake relationship in a short time, she was going to have to come up with a lie that would make Lucy believe the reason their "relationship" didn't last long. Gray was _paying_ her for this! She owed him so she _had_ to succeed.

"Gray didn't exactly say he liked me back. He was the one who wanted to test a relationship with me."

Lucy was surprised. She didn't know what Gray's taste in women was like, but after hearing how his ex-girlfriends were, she definitely admitted that Erza was way different that any women he might have dated before. She supposed she understood why Gray had taken time to accept her confession. Maybe he had a hard time picturing himself with Erza or something. But the good thing was he was willing to try right?

"I'll help you! We'll definitely get Gray to fall for you as well. You'll be the best girlfriend he'll ever have, Erza!" Lucy tried to encourage but it only made Erza feel guiltier. "I'll make sure he doesn't break up with you!"

Erza frantically shook her head. Lucy was getting fired up for some lie she came up with! Gray would never actually like her. It was too impossible. She knew Gray from way back, she knew his types. "It's okay! I made him promise to still be friends if it doesn't work out. I'm prepared for it. You don't have to worry."

Lucy's excitement died down slightly. "Oh, I understand."

Erza thought they were going to end the conversation there but a few moments later Lucy opened her mouth again. "But I'm really glad Gray has a girlfriend. Thanks to you Erza I'll finally be free from the rumors!" She smiled sheepishly.

"That reminds me, you never told me about that before. Gray was the one that told me that you've been tolerating Juvia's treatment since you transferred."

Lucy laughed nervously. "Sorry, it wasn't really a big deal so I didn't tell you. For some reason, she thinks I'm out to steal Gray or something. I keep reminding her that popular guys aren't my type and that we're just friends but she just doesn't listen."

Erza looked down. "I'm sorry I never noticed myself." Hopefully after this nobody would bother Lucy anymore. It was baffling that some girls liked Gray to this extent. She was going to get to the bottom of this.

"Erza, is it okay if I asked about this Jellal guy?"

Erza stiffened. She was dreading this conversation. How could she forget? Explaining about Jellal was going to be tougher than lying about a fake relationship with Gray. "You already asked."

"Sorry, I was curious. I understand if you don't want to talk about him. If I had an ex-boyfriend I wouldn't want to talk about him either unless I was truly over him."

"I _am_ over him." Erza's voice became rougher.

"S-Sorry! I didn't mean it like that!"

Erza sighed. "We broke up two years ago. It's a long story."

"I see."

Maybe if Lucy worked hard enough, Erza would fully trust her to tell her more. Not just about ex-boyfriends, but just about her in general.

* * *

The next morning around breakfast, Erza received a text message from an unknown number.

 _our first act. we'll walk 2 class 2gether. i'll wait for u near fairy hill's entrance._

She frowned. Erza always had a problem with people who couldn't spell properly. She found it hard sometimes to read "text message language."

 _Who are you? How did you get my number?_

A few seconds later, she received a reply.

 _it's me gray! i've always had it. apparently u've never had mine._

Erza raised an eyebrow.

Come to think of it, this was the first time they texted each other. Although Erza was never much of a texting person, she preferred to speak directly.

Over at the male dormitory, Gray was in the middle of changing into his uniform, regretting sending that earlier message.

 _Why did I send her that? It sounded like I was sulking!_

It was true but he shouldn't have let her know. _She never had my number?_ He supposed it wasn't a big deal considering they weren't exactly friends the past two years and she never had a reason to text him. But he didn't have a reason before either yet he still kept her number just in case!

"Hey stripper, put your clothes back on." Natsu commented.

"I swear I had it on!"

* * *

"You're late."

Gray was panting when he finally got to Erza in front of the entrance. "Yeah, getting away from the girls was hard."

"What did you tell them?"

"Nothing, I ignored them. Just said I had to get to you quickly."

Erza approved. "Let's go."

It was a five minute walk from the dorms to the main school building. The whole walk was in silence, with Gray and Erza walking awkwardly next to each other. Gray was racking his brain for something to say but was surprised Erza was the one who opened her mouth first.

"Lucy interrogated me last night."

Gray internally sighed in relief. "Oh, I guess she would. What happened?"

Erza gave him a recap on her conversation with Lucy last night. She left out the part with Jellal of course. The whole time Gray's jaw just dropped lower and lower.

"You told her you confessed to me first?!" Gray asked in shock. He was surprised yet a part of him felt strangely happy.

"The lie just spoke itself."

"I assumed for the sake of your pride you'd tell her I was the one in love with you and begging for you to accept me."

The studious redhead scoffed. "No one in the world would believe that. And since she wasn't suspicious of me at all, I guess she believed my lie."

Gray never knew Erza was so good at lying. Either Erza was good at lying or Lucy was just gullible. Although the thought of someone thinking Erza liking him made him swell with pride. This was just too good.

"What the heck are you smiling about? Creep."

"I wasn't – "

"Whatever. There's one problem though. What did you tell Natsu? People aren't going to believe us if our fake stories aren't the same. We have to work on that."

Gray grumbled. Erza always cut people off but got angry if other people interrupted her. "He didn't say anything."

Erza raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

"Yeah, I got back last night and he didn't ask at all."

Erza put her fingers below her chin in deep thought. It was a habit when she was thinking hard about something. Gray noticed that part of her hadn't changed. "That's strange. Maybe he's onto us."

"Or maybe he could care less about my girlfriends. He was never interested before. And l'm glad you told Lucy that you confessed first, because that's what I told the other guys. I couldn't avoid them at breakfast." Gray said sheepishly. He almost braced himself for a scolding or maybe a hit on the head but none of that happened.

"Well then we're lucky we happened to think of the same lie. But now we have to plan ahead just in case. Luck doesn't normally come by a second time."

They were nearing the school's main entrance when they saw more and more students looking at their direction. Erza quickly grabbed onto Gray's hand.

Gray was immediately hit with a warm sensation and snapped out of his trance when he made sure that _Erza Scarlet was holding his hand._

"What are you doing spacing out, Gray? Keep walking."

Gray promptly coughed and was silent as they walked together to class, almost every eye on them. Gray didn't mind usually being the center of attention when he was alone, initially he was confused, there were times he was annoyed at the attention he got (usually because they disturbed his practice), but also times he was proud.

But he was never more proud of himself as he felt right at that moment.

Sure it was nerve-racking that _the_ Erza Scarlet, one of the most attractive yet fearsome female in the academy was currently holding hands with him. But when he thought about it, there was a major benefit in this so far. Girls were making way for them and not daring to annoy him (he internally sighed in relief as he couldn't spot Juvia anywhere) but at the same time, he was still getting attention like the popular male he was.

There were whispers here and there, both from the male and female students but so far most of them consisted of a mix of wails of misery and exclamations of disbelief of "They're really together!" or "I can't believe it!" and "He's too good for her." He was about to laugh boastfully until he heard "I wonder how long they've been banging."

Gray covered his mouth, trying to block out his cough in embarrassment. He glanced at the redhead next to him to see her reaction, only now just realizing that he indeed had gotten taller than her in the last few years.

He was disappointed to see that she barely had a reaction, keeping the same stern and emotionless expression as always.

"I've discovered something more annoying than your fan girls." Erza said, without looking at him.

 _Hah! She is so jealous._ "What?" He asked expectantly.

"You."

"Hey!"

"I'm trying to walk quickly to class and ignore everyone but you're walking too slowly and now it looks like I'm dragging a big grown up boy to school on his first day and it's embarrassing."

"Hey, hey walking with the Great Gray is anything _but_ embarrassing. It's an honor."

"It's a real honor appearing to be together with an exhibitionist." She said sarcastically. "You're stripping right now."

"Shit!"

* * *

"Erza's pretty late." Lucy commented. "She's usually here 30 minutes before class starts."

Class 2-A of Fairy Academy was full of chaos as every other class there was, and nothing could be done unless the homeroom teacher came in or Erza Scarlet herself.

"Why didn't you come to class with her?" Natsu asked who was sitting in front of her as he swallowed down a bite of a big spicy cheeseburger.

"She told me to leave first. It makes sense she'd want to spend more time with her boyfriend now that they've gone public." Lucy sighed happily.

Natsu surprisingly didn't comment, continuing to finish the last of his burger, to which Lucy found strange. She looked at him teasingly. "It looks like my guess was right after all. There really was something between those two."

"You said they were exes. Wrong."

"Yeah but I was close. I assumed they were in a relationship and I was totally right!" Lucy exclaimed happily. "I got over my surprise pretty quickly but I texted all our friends last night and they still can't believe it!"

"Duh. Erza and the porn star are the worst combination I've ever heard."

"You're just butthurt because I was right and you were wrong!" Lucy pointed at the pink-haired boy in front of her accusingly.

"Yeah yeah, congratulations to you for the first time ever." Natsu said in a bored tone.

Lucy still beamed in pride though. "But what was funny was that Mira-san and the gang said they were surprised that Erza was the one that confessed first, not the fact they're together. "

"Erza confessed first?!" Now Natsu knew there was something suspicious.

"Yeah! Doesn't that mean this whole time they thought _Gray_ was into Erza?" Lucy said excited. "You know that means everyone knew they were boyfriend-girlfriend material except you. Although I guess I was surprised too that Erza liked Gray that way. I didn't think Gray was her type."

"Erza's a monster. Monsters don't have types."

Lucy smacked his arm to which he cried out childishly in surprise. "Erza's a girl too you know. Besides, that's definitely an incorrect assumption since Erza confirmed she had an ex-boyfriend. And a handsome one too." Lucy admitted. "But she's really lucky! I mean, Gray is pretty good-looking after all."

Natsu gagged at that to which Lucy promptly ignored. "And the fact that they've been friends for a long time just makes it even more romantic! Naturally he'll treat her better than some stranger she just met and asked her out for the fun of it." She voiced out her opinion.

Natsu stared at Lucy curiously, his face slowly becoming closer to Lucy, suddenly making the blond uncomfortable. "W-What?"

"You have a type?"

"Huh?"

"Well?"

 _He's asking about this way too seriously_. Maybe she was just imagining it. She cleared her throat nervously. She unconsciously leaned further back to distance their faces from each other. "Well, naturally. Girls have preferences just like guys do."

Natsu frowned in thought. He wanted to ask Lucy again however was interrupted by the sound of a fierce stomping. The front door of their classroom slid open to reveal an angry-looking Erza Scarlet and an annoyed Gray Fullbuster right behind her.

"When will you ever learn to keep your clothes on?"

"Hey you know it's a habit. Learn to accept it!"

"Have you been in too many strip clubs and now you can't differentiate between a strip club and school?!"

Gray and Erza continued arguing while the whole class watched in awe.

"They don't look like a happy couple to me." Natsu commented.

"They're like an old married couple." Lucy observed.

"They're so cute!" There goes Mirajane Strauss, Fairy Academy's resident idol princess also part-time matchmaker.

"A lot of sexual tension going on there." Cana who sat way at the back of the class commented.

"Sexual tension is MANLY!"

"That don't make any sense."

Lucy was glad there weren't a lot of Gray's fan girls in their class, especially Juvia. But if she was in the class right next to theirs, no doubt Juvia could hear the surprisingly approving comments of Gray and Erza's relationship from their classmates. How was she, Lucy wondered?

Lucy had stayed up late last night checking out everyone's reaction in the school's official chat room. Apparently the news of Gray Fullbuster and Erza Scarlet in a relationship was more popular than the recent victory of Fairy Tail in yesterday's practice match against Paradise Academy. Huh. No doubt Jason, the academy's resident school reporter would be ecstatic at all these potential scoops that were revealed in just one day.

But all in all, Lucy knew that this might have been the most drastic and dramatic change in Erza's peaceful high school life. Whether that was a good change or a bad one, only Erza determined that.

And Lucy was determined to support her friend every step of the way.

* * *

" _You went to her school to see her?!"_

" _Yeah."_

" _Are you crazy?! Why would you do that?"_

" _I missed her."_

" _Jellal..."_

" _She hates me more than ever."_

" _Let me guess. You still acted like an asshole?"_

" _..."_

" _You idiot."_

" _Yeah."_

" _You're making her hate you more. That was why I told you not to see her. It's not worth it. You'll just get more heartbroken."_

" _I know. I couldn't help it."_

" _If I knew you were planning to see her, I would've forced you to tell her what really happened. I keep telling you it wasn't your fault."_

" _I was still responsible. As much as I wanted to defend myself I couldn't."_

" _Why?"_

" _She already has someone else."_

" _What?! Who?!"_

" _Some guy from her school. I guess I just got discouraged and couldn't help but be a jerk."_

" _Don't be jealous if you're not going to do anything about it."_

" _I'm not jealous! I mean...I don't have the right to be."_

" _Stop being a wimp, Jellal. You sound pathetic."_

" _Shut up."_

" _Just because she already has a boyfriend, it doesn't mean you don't have the right to explain. You can still steal her back. It's not too late."_

" _Forget about it. It's better she hates me. I can't promise her anything after all."_

" _Jellal, you're such a pathetic asshole."_

" _I know."_

* * *

 _A/N: R_ _emember when I said Jellal wouldn't appear until a few chapters later, I lied. HAHAHA! Jellal brings the drama I need xD_

 _Reviews make this story worth typing for eight hours straight! It makes me jump on my bed and my mom scold me afterwards! *_*_

 _-27/9/15_


	8. Juvia

_A/N: **EDIT: The old followers of this story should check out the first chapter again. I replaced that chapter with a prologue. It's actually just a flashback chapter before the current events happening between our two leads. It's really important to read that part!** Sorry if it's so confusing. And don't forget to tell me what you think!_

 _Shout out to the reviewers from the previous chapter!_

 ** _Genie For Your Wish, Absolute-ZERO999, Dfields3710, DowmShickaWaWow (Guest), PinkKoala213, CANNONBALL (Guest), Relient City and SeoSakuraChan!_**

 _Also thanks to the new followers and faves! All of you really motivate me to continue because the latest chapters continue to depress me despite the hardcore action and hype. Gruvia is cute but it makes me more depressed than feeling like squealing._

 _Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail_

* * *

 _ **Faking and Loving**_

 _ **Chapter 7**_

* * *

 _Day 1_

 _Wednesday, 11:58am_

It had only been a few hours since the first period and already Erza was worn out.

She expected that being the (fake!) girlfriend of the popular Gray Fullbuster would undoubtedly cause attention, but she had no idea it would be to this extent.

During the whole class Erza constantly felt people whispering and she could feel the burn of some stares towards her direction. For some strange reason, the stares she felt weren't burns of rage like she expected, but more of curiosity. Of course, being the stoic person she had always been, she ignored the stares as best she could, instead concentrating on the problem that was present on the board.

This was only the beginning. She would tolerate this for now.

The bell rang indicating that it was finally time for lunch break. Like the other students, Erza stood up, bowing at the teacher who dismissed their class with a final reminder of homework, to which some groans of the students could be heard after the teacher left.

Clearing the books on her table, she turned to Lucy who was whining at the pink-haired boy in front of her about how she would not let Natsu copy her homework this time around.

"Lucy, let's have the sandwiches I made near the school fountain." Erza said, her tone slightly commanding as usual.

The blond girl looked at her weirdly. "Eh? Weren't you going to share that with your boyfriend?" She glanced towards Gray, who froze stiff for a few seconds.

Natsu glanced at Gray curiously.

Erza returned her strange look with one of her own. "What boy –"

" - Erzaaa! You made lunch for me?! Even you can be sweet." Gray hurriedly interrupted her with an arm around her shoulders while he laughed nervously.

Erza's eyes widened in realization. How could she forget in such a short time? During the whole class she was thinking about how to ignore the upcoming attention!

Oblivious to the panic in Erza's whole being, Lucy attempted to praise her redhead friend in front of Gray. She wanted Gray to have a good impression of Erza after all, and hopefully change his mind and stick with having Erza as his girlfriend. "Erza's really sweet, Gray! You guys should have your alone time so I'll just take Natsu here and we'll be off!" Lucy hurriedly grabbed Natsu's wrist and dragged him out of the class, leaving Gray and Erza alone staring after them.

"That was close." Gray breathed a sigh of relief.

"Sorry, it was my fault." Erza tilted her head slightly to look up to him.

The raven-haired boy turned his head to Erza's direction and just realized that his arm was still around her securely. When did their faces become so close to each other?

"Hey Fullbuster! Getting some action so early huh?"

Gray snapped out of his trance hearing the catcalls of his teammates. He looked over to see Fried, Elfman and Bixlow smirking at him.

Gray hurriedly let go of Erza, startling her. He coughed slightly, his hands covering his mouth in an attempt to cover his embarrassment. "Shut up."

"Erza Scarlet, man! That's still hard to believe!" Bixlow, who was also part of the basketball club laughed mercilessly.

"Getting confessed to by the monster Titania Erza! That's MANLY!"

"Erza's manlier than Gray actually." Fried commented.

More laughing and teasing ensued and honestly Gray was getting more annoyed. It wasn't enough that they kept embarrassing him this morning at breakfast too, with the other dorm members joining in. Even the juniors snickered at him too, after he claimed that Erza was the one that confessed, which they didn't believe. Ugh.

Like seriously, none of them bothered to tease him when he got into relationships before. And for some reason hearing that he's dating Erza the guys were suddenly interested. They were making a big deal of a _lie_.

Erza noticed that Gray was definitely annoyed, and she couldn't blame him because Gray's friends were getting on her nerves too. So she walked up to them, and using only two hands, despite all three guys being a head taller than she was; the strict redhead reached up, grabbed the collar of their school uniform and forcefully brought their faces down to her level.

"There will be no insulting and teasing of my boyfriend in the future." She looked at them straight in the eye and glared. "Understood?"

Gray was pleasantly surprised as the tone of her voice sent chills down their spines. They all nodded meekly at once. After getting over his slight shock, Gray breathed a sigh of relief that Erza's tone wasn't directed towards him. Huh.

"Good. I'm glad we have an understanding."

* * *

"Still can't believe you did that."

After escaping to a slightly secluded place behind one of the school buildings, Gray and Erza finally settled down on a bench and ate lunch in peace. Erza suggested that their "alone time" Lucy had given them was to talk about the plan.

"No problem." Erza said, munching on a slice of chocolate cake that Gray had bought for her. "They were annoying and they called me a man."

Gray grimaced. He didn't deny that he was ticked at being called less manly than Erza. "You didn't have to, you know. We're gonna break up in a few weeks anyway."

"I still don't want to have to tolerate insults while I'm trying to concentrate. I'll be the best fake girlfriend you've ever had."

Gray grimaced. "Hopefully this will be the only time I'd have to resort to this."

Erza hid a smile.

"You didn't have to give me this sandwich either." Gray said after finishing the last of his sandwich.

"You didn't have to buy me cake either." Erza countered.

"I just wanted to thank you."

"Well, then I wanted to thank you too." Erza said, looking at him straight in the eyes.

Gray's eyes widened in return before he looked away, feeling nervous all of a sudden. "I didn't do anything."

Erza gave him a mysterious smile. "I guess not."

Before Gray could question what she had meant by that, Erza changed the topic. "So what's the plan?"

"Huh?"

"Obviously you thought of something to catch whoever's cursing you?"

Gray was quiet. Honestly, the only plan he had was to show off he had a girlfriend, and in a few days something was bound to happen. It didn't work out whenever he asked his past girlfriends who was doing it.

"I didn't think of a major plan actually." Gray responded.

"I see. Then we'll just continue doing this. Come to school together, eat lunch together, go on a few dates and you'll walk me back."

Gray nodded. Honestly that was already perfect. He was definitely _not_ confident in pretending to be all romantic with Erza. It was easy enough to flirt around with girls that he barely knew. But being alone with Erza was already awkward enough. What more acting like a flirt in front of her. He was sure that even his friends would pick up on his bad acting. It would be out-of-character for him, and he wanted his act to look as natural as possible.

As natural as playing boyfriend for Erza could be.

"Okay. We'll give it a few days. I'm sure the fact that I have a girlfriend after two months of being single is enough of a trigger for that mystery person to target you, Erza."

Erza rolled her eyes. "Very scary indeed." She said sarcastically. "I'll find out whoever's doing this from the first clue."

"Remember you gotta tell me anybody you suspect." Gray said seriously.

Erza thought about this. She knew that after they find out, she and Gray would have to "break up." That was certain. But what happens after that?

"What are you going to do when you find out?" Erza asked him.

"What?"

"I mean, what are you going to do to the person that's been sabotaging your ex-girlfriends when you find out? Are you going to make that person's life a living hell or something?"

Gray was silent in thought. What _was_ he going to do? He didn't actually think about it. He just wanted to know.

"No. I'd probably just try talk to them and make them understand." Gray said finally. "I'm suspecting that person to be one of my fans and maybe if I use my charisma well enough, I'd get her to stop pulling these childish attempts at making sure I stay single."

Erza looked at him in acknowledgement. "That's very mature of you I suppose. Maybe you could even try dating that girl."

"Are you kidding? I'm not dating anyone that put me into this mess." He muttered. Even if that girl happened to be hot. "And I've always been mature!"

"I object to that. You and Natsu are the most childish people I have ever known. You guys still fight even though you're best friends."

"I'm the one getting sucked into his pointless challenges. He's the immature one, not me." Gray huffed. "And we're not best friends." He added.

Erza smiled softly. Gray and Natsu haven't changed one bit; at least, towards each other. Natsu was still the same with her too. Loud, childish, but still a supportive, honest friend. Erza might have pushed Natsu away for reasons that she thought he hated her too in the past, but Natsu had continually proved her wrong. The pink-haired boy was like a younger brother to her. Despite their arguments, Natsu never stopped being a friend and Erza found out later on that Natsu had high respect for her. She was told that he looked up to her a lot, and that she shouldn't take what Gray had said to her to heart.

On the other hand her relationship with Gray had drastically changed from two years ago. Before, Erza had thought of Gray as exactly the same as Natsu. Both were immature and quick to follow her orders, so that they don't suffer her wrath. It was easy to be friends with them. The fact that Natsu and Gray were both lively and had a lot of friends greatly helped her to become friends with everyone else. They accepted her even though she knew that she was an awfully awkward and unsociable child before.

Gray was the one who accepted her first. Her awkward tendencies, her bossy attitude, all of that and still reached out to be her friend.

So when they had their first big argument, and Erza found out it was because of all her bad traits that she thought Gray accepted before when they first became friends, was actually the reason why Gray hated her, she was _crushed._

She wanted to hate Gray in return, she honestly did. But she couldn't.

Because what Gray said was right. Nothing Natsu ever said could make her feel better.

"You're not listening."

Erza was snapped out of her thoughts. She didn't realize she was clenching her fists, and immediately forced herself to relax. "What?"

Gray raised an eyebrow. "I said, if nothing happens in a few days, we'll have to resort to public displays of affection."

"No kissing."

A hint of red was apparent on his cheeks. "I know that! You don't have to remind me every single time." Geez, why was she so against on kissing anyway?

Not that he was _not_ against it.

"I understand. Displays of affection should trigger more reactions, and once we get a hold of some negative reactions, we'll find a clue. I think holding hands in public should be enough. I'll be sure to tell you what I found."

 _Just holding hands?_ "I don't think that's enough to convince our friends we're a couple."

"We're not putting extra effort to convince our friends. We're just doing this to fool your admirers. You're suspecting one of them is the reason for this curse, right?"

"Well...yeah."

"Didn't you say it wouldn't even require much effort?"

"That's true."

Erza smiled at him. She was smiling a lot recently. He wondered why. Or was she always like this? He felt like he was just getting to know her, when in reality they had known each other for a long time. It was kind of rare to see Erza smiling nowadays. She was just so serious all the time; at least that was what he could observe when he saw her in class, or in the hallways, or the rare times when they hung out with the whole gang. He shouldn't really judge because he'd been an asshole who stopped being her friend halfway. Maybe she was always like this.

"I don't think we have to overdo it. I _did_ tell Lucy that this was just you and me trying for a relationship and that I was the only one with feelings."

That sounded so odd coming from her lips. So unbelievable too.

"So our friends would understand if we don't look like a normal love-sick couple. Because to be honest I have no idea on how to act like the typical couple in-love. So I apologize for that."

Gray was once again astounded by her sincere honesty. At one point in their childhood it was a trait of hers he admired. He gulped, mentally shaking his head.

 _Focus._

"I thought you had a boyfriend once. You shouldn't be that inexperienced." He blurted out.

Erza was momentarily shocked.

Gray internally panicked. _Fuck, didn't she mention not to ever mention the ex?_ He was always like this, just said things he didn't mean to when he got nervous.

The scarlet-haired girl however didn't explode like he thought she would. She looked like she forced herself to stay calm though. Well, anything was good as long as she didn't throttle him.

"We were definitely...not like the typical couple." She said slowly as she looked down on her lap. A sad smile passed on her face. "Maybe that was why it didn't work out."

 _FUCK! She better not cry!_

Gray on some sort of reflex action grabbed the sides of her small face and forced her to look at him. "Oi!"

Erza was once again startled. Gray noticed there weren't any tears brimming in her eyes or anything, so that was at least a good sign. He inched himself a little closer to her and looked straight at her. Erza on the other hand was aware of the closeness, and strangely enough, she didn't mind it. Not at this moment. His hands were also strangely warm on her face. The look in his eyes was serious and deep; Erza couldn't help but stare into his dark irises. It wasn't like she had anywhere else to look after all.

"Whatever the reason for your breakup, it's definitely not because you weren't like the typical, sickeningly cute couple that loves PDA, okay? Every couple is different in some ways." He said seriously.

Erza's expression of shock slowly turned into a genuine smile, one that did numbers to Gray's heart. It helped him realize that he was a bit too close. But he didn't move away. Not yet. "I was wrong to think you've changed a lot. You're still the kind guy everyone loves. The only difference is that the numbers of your admirers increased. And your girlfriends, I guess."

There was no way to fight his blush down now and realizing that it would be painfully obvious especially when he was keeping her face a bit too close to his, he hurriedly let go and inched further away from her. Erza almost laughed at how flustered he was.

He was still _kind_ of adorable like back then.

"I-I just...didn't want you to cry all of a sudden. People would think I did it, or something." He stammered slightly.

"Believe me, I haven't cried about it in a long time."

Now Gray was struck with images of Erza crying painfully after a breakup. It made him feel nauseous. He couldn't imagine it being possible, but at the same time, he could imagine it. It had been so long since he last seen her cry. He didn't want to remember it.

Ughh...now he was feeling really awful.

She punched him lightly on the shoulder. "Hey, don't forget by the end of the day you have to pay me."

He grumbled. "Yeah, yeah."

While initially being cautious of their surroundings, amidst their conversation, Gray and Erza slowly became oblivious to the pairs of eyes spying on them.

* * *

"You're being too obvious, Lucy."

"I'm not!"

It started as a one-man spying event from Lucy, then turned into an all-out main event from all of their friends.

Initially Natsu invited Lucy to have lunch in the cafeteria, but she declined and told him to go on without her. She wanted to check on how Gray and Erza were doing.

The blond realized that she might be a little too caught up in her friend's love life, but this was the first thing about Erza that she knew that had nothing to do with studying, exams, and strawberry cheesecakes.

Lucy was still surprised that Erza had shared something so personal with her like confessing that she was in love with _the_ Gray Fullbuster.

Fine. Maybe not _in love_ , but the right term would be _romantically interested_.

"They're a really boring couple." Bixlow said.

"They're just talking and eating." Cana commented.

"Duhh that's what you do when you're having lunch." Lisanna countered.

"What did you expect? Gray and Erza publicly making out or something?" Evergreen said sarcastically. "Erza's way too elegant for that."

"Making out is MANLY!" Elfman shouted.

"It's just their first day since they went public." Mirajane added with an excited smile. "They're still cute."

"We can't even hear anything." Levy joined in.

When Natsu joined the other guys for lunch in the cafeteria, they all asked him why wasn't Lucy with him. As soon as he said that Lucy wanted to spy on Gray and Erza, they all but immediately scarfed down their lunches and joined Lucy instead.

Natsu rolled his eyes at how nosy his friends were.

Now he was sitting on his desk, wondering why these people were so interested in Gray and Erza.

They were being too obvious, spying on them from the windows in their class that was the easiest way of getting a view but also less obvious than actually being around the hearing range of the spot they were currently having lunch.

"I wonder what they're talking about." Lucy said.

"Maybe it's just the typical 'get-to-know each other' conversations, Lu-chan."

Cana chuckled. "You guys always forget that these two have known each other for ten years already."

"That's true but nobody knew that Erza actually had an ex-boyfriend before." Lucy pointed out.

They all nodded in agreement. Everyone was still surprised by that fact. Whether it was that Erza actually had a boyfriend, or that there was _actually_ someone out there that could handle Erza Scarlet, they didn't know.

Erza Scarlet indeed had the looks, the smarts and all round perfect body that screamed attractive; but no one in their school ever dared to actually put the moves on her. The last time was when Loke transferred two years ago, and he didn't even get to finish his pick-up line before he was punched in the face for trying to touch Erza. It made sense that her previous boyfriend was someone that wasn't in their school.

Basically all the guys were currently saluting Gray for having the guts. Not to confess to Erza himself but to accept a confession from _her_.

"No matter how long you've known one another, a lot of things can still be a mystery." Fried said thoughtfully.

"Whoa hold up! Are they kissing?!" Lucy exclaimed.

All of them – including Natsu – immediately looked at their direction again. From above it did look like they were kissing. The girls all gushed about how bold Gray was. They didn't miss that Gray was the one who initiated it.

Natsu wanted to throw up.

Cana smirked. "Sorry to disappoint you guys, but neither Erza nor Gray looked like they just kissed." Gray couldn't possibly be that bold. He could be when it was his past girlfriends. But this was Erza after all. And she wasn't his real girlfriend.

"Ah, you're right. Their faces are still at a distance from each other." Levy observed.

"False alarm!" Bixlow shouted.

The girls sighed disappointedly. They just noticed that Gray sort of pushed Erza away.

They weren't really sure why they were rooting for Gray and Erza anyways. It would've been impossible before, what with Gray changing girlfriends frequently since he became popular (Loke's influence). Gray was their friend but they didn't really care anymore who his girlfriend was. It wasn't that his girlfriends were bitchy or anything (okay some of them were). His exes just didn't put up any effort to be friends with them. They just cared about being Gray's girlfriend but never really tried to be friends with the Fairy Tail gang.

The only one girl that was part of Gray's fan club that tried to befriend them was Juvia Lockser. And she was nice and kind even though she could be slightly awkward, just as long as you didn't talk about Gray around her. Otherwise she's automatically dub you as a love rival out to steal Gray. She was allowed to tell them what she liked about Gray when they asked but they weren't allowed to agree with her.

They weren't allowed to badmouth him either.

All in all being friends with Juvia required you to be a bit more cautious. They all thought of Juvia as their friend, even Lucy, but she usually spent more time trying to get Gray's attention than hanging out with them.

 _Speaking of Juvia, where was she? How was she feeling with all this?_

"I still have a hard time believing this. You guys were all there when they fought two years ago, right? A sudden confession from Erza..." Lisanna trailed.

"If anyone was gonna confess, wouldn't it be Gray?" Laxus said all of a sudden.

All nine of them, Lucy, Levy, Cana, Mirajane, Lisanna, Fried, Bixlow, Evergreen, Elfman turned to Laxus in shock. Laxus who was the only one older than them by a year other than Fried and Bixlow was usually quiet and minding his own business. It was still a surprise he was even with them here even though he hadn't said a word and wasn't actually giving a second glance towards Gray and Erza. Even Natsu who could care less about them talking about the "budding romance" between his childhood friends turned his head to Laxus in curiosity.

"Why would you say that?" Mira asked in anticipation. If Laxus noticed something and said something about it, then it was probably true.

At least, truer than anything Mira had to say.

Mirajane Strauss pretty much claimed all her friends had some sort of romantic chemistry and were secretly in love with each other. No, you really couldn't believe anything Mira had to say when it came to romance.

Laxus was struck with a flashback two years ago. Back when he was the biggest asshole in the entire school. He was only sixteen then, and Gray was a year younger.

" _If I win this match, you're gonna call me the ace of this new team until you graduate," Gray said breathlessly. He was not confident in winning a one-on-one match with Laxus Dreyar whatsoever but he desperately wanted to teach the arrogant blond who was also the grandson of the headmaster of Fairy Academy a lesson._

" _If I win this match I get to have one of your girls." Laxus said with a large smirk._

" _Hah?! I don't have any girls to give you, asshole." Gray hissed. "If you want my admirers you can have them." He returned his smirk. He was always a bit proud that he had more admirers than Laxus, even the senior girls liked him, even though they called him cute but still admirers nonetheless._

" _Oh? Then I can have Cana then?"_

 _Gray laughed. "Cana? Pfft she's not my girl. This is getting boring." He shrugged._

 _Laxus gritted his teeth. But a second later he smirked again. "Then I'll have Erza then."_

 _Gray's smirk immediately died and his jaw hung open in shock. "What?"_

 _The blond sixteen year old knew he had Gray there. "Oh? Not so smug now are you?"_

 _A deep frown etched on Gray's expression. "You like Erza?"_

" _I thought Cana was yours so I wanted her first. But Erza always interested me. I always liked the quiet, feisty ones. It doesn't hurt that she's hot as hell."_

 _Gray clenched his fists. "You wouldn't like her. She's bossy as hell, fucking stubborn and her temper and her ego is as large as yours." He said pretending that it didn't bother him._

 _But Laxus knew he struck a nerve. Gray definitely looked like someone was crossing his territory._

" _Oh? Then we're perfect. We'd have some great, hot angry sex."_

Needless to say, Laxus lost that match completely fair and square. Gray lunged at him and threw punches that definitely left a few bruises on his face. Of course Laxus made sure to decorate Gray's face too. They fought some more before some of the guys, specifically Fried and Bixlow, finally noticed the noise and broke up the fight. Laxus would've won the fist fight, because it was just _Gray_ and he lost to Erza Scarlet on a daily basis.

But Gray completely _crushed_ him in their one-on-one game.

Laxus had never seen Gray furious like that before. He was too serious for something as small as a challenge for the top title in basketball. His pointless fights with Natsu were never that serious. He was sure no one else had seen him like that either.

There was no doubt that time Gray was into Erza.

So two years later and they were actually a couple, Laxus didn't believe it for a second that Erza was the one that confessed and Gray claimed to not have feelings for her like Lucy had told everyone.

Were they really a couple anyways?

Laxus didn't really care anymore about what his friends did; as long as they didn't involve him in their crazy shenanigans.

"No reason." Was all he responded to Mira's question.

* * *

"Gajeel's not here?"

School for the day was finally over, and Levy hadn't gotten to see Gajeel the whole day. She had to admit she was caught up in the Gray and Erza gossip, especially hanging around Lucy for the most part, so she hadn't gotten a chance to talk to him. It was all anyone was talking about and being a part of Gray's circle of friends Levy was also interrogated by a few girls about his newfound girlfriend. It was quite tiring. So after book club she went to visit the basketball club who was just done with practice.

"No, in fact I heard that Gajeel-senpai was also absent from all his classes today." A junior from the basketball club said.

"Really?" That was a shock. Was Gajeel just lazy today? She would've thought that he'd wanted to brag to her some more about winning their latest game.

Unfortunately she wasn't in the same class with Gajeel so she could only talk to him at lunch. It was kind of hard to get to know Gajeel. He was the only guy in the gang that didn't stay in the male dorms. Levy didn't know where he lived either.

She was quite worried now. Maybe he was sick? He didn't text her all day today. And she honestly forgot to text him too.

"Thanks." She said to the junior student before leaving the gym.

 _Are you okay, Gajeel?_

* * *

" _Someone's worried about you."_

" _I'll reply her text later."_

" _Thanks for letting Juvia stay."_

 _Grunt. "I can't believe you got yourself sick."_

 _A sad smile._

" _You never got sick before. Not even when I chucked you in the river in that heavy rain."_

 _A giggle. "You mean when we were kids?"_

" _Duh."_

 _Another silence._

" _Hurry up and get better."_

" _Juvia's not sure when she will be okay."_

" _Are you talking about your fever or –"_

 _More tears. "Juvia's very heartbroken. Juvia's never felt like this before."_

" _Don't be so sad. You know how much the stripper bastard changes girlfriends. They'll be over soon."_

" _What if they won't be over?"_

" _You're gonna give up? That didn't stop you before."_

" _Gray-sama was never in love with those other girls before. Juvia thought she had a chance."_

" _What makes Titania any different?"_

" _...Juvia doesn't know. She just has a bad feeling."_

" _Worse than the blond girl you were set on as your rival?"_

 _The tears kept coming._

" _Much worse."_

* * *

 _A/N: Reviews pwetty pwease :3_

 _Till next time~_

 _-5:07AM_

 _-8/10/15_


	9. The Note

_A/N: I'm overwhelmed by the reviews from last week's update. Thank you just doesn't seem enough for all the happiness your **follows, faves** and **reviews** gave me recently. And I'm very happy that there are still some readers that can enjoy some Grayza. Do I have any Jerza fans reading this story? I'm curious._

 _ **Absolute-ZERO999** : Your enthusiastic reviews every update always give me spirit. Thanks so much._

 _ **CANONNBALL(Guest)** : I wish you had an account so I can talk to you more xD_

 _ **erzashera** : I also hope Gray tries harder to be real :3 And I'm glad you liked the little flashback/prologue. I like to think they've matured from those years. I also can't wait to write how Jellal and Juvia is going to get their love back. They're not backing down, not yet._

 _ **EJScarlet (Guest)** : I love your theory and I'm surprised you're the only one to mention it. I wasn't sure if I was being subtle or obvious with those hints :3_

 _ **Relient City** : Always appreciate your praise and criticism! :D_

 _ **Just Pavi** : Yay another new reviewer! Really happy that you're happy with how the plot is going! Hope you don't hate Jellal too much because it wasn't my intention. I'm not fond of him in canon, which is why I plan to make him a little more likable in my fic XD Same case for Juvia (Mashima, please give Juvia some character development or else I will never be able to take her seriously)_

 _ **Lee Kagura:** I'm the most happiest Grayza fan in the world if you claim I was able to make you miss Grayza again. And I'm honored that you said this is one of your favorite Grayza fics. I hope I can continue bringing smiles, more emotions and all round fangirlness in reading this ^_^_

 _Anyways, enjoy the chapter!_

* * *

 ** _Faking and Loving_**

 ** _Chapter 8 – Day Three_**

* * *

" _You're not my mom, my sister or anything!"_

" _You're a sorry excuse of a friend!"_

" _ **I hate you!"**_

Erza woke up with a start. Her eyes were wide open, her heart was racing and the only sounds she could hear were her own heavy breathing. She clenched her fists in her sheets and just realized how sweaty she had become.

 _I haven't had that dream in a long time._

It wasn't a dream, she knew. It was a memory.

Why did she have to remember that?

Perhaps suddenly talking to her raven-haired childhood friend on a daily basis recently was the cause of why this dream made an appearance again after so long.

Her head hurt so much.

She checked the alarm clock beside her and realized it was only 4AM.

It was still too early. But after tossing and turning only to realize that there was no way she could fall asleep again, the redhead got up and proceeded to the bathroom to wash her face.

 _Might as well go and study to pass time_ , she thought as she exited her shared room with Lucy and made way to the study room.

* * *

Lucy and Erza were eating breakfast together in the dining hall when a "beep" sound was heard.

"Erza, I think that's your phone." Lucy said.

Erza glanced at her phone already expecting who texted her. Before him, she never really got texts from anyone.

 _New message (1) – Gray_

For some reason, Erza didn't feel like reading it. She sighed.

"I would have thought you'd be happy to get a message from your boyfriend so early in the morning," Lucy said after swallowing the last of her scrambled eggs.

"Huh? How did you know?"

"I assumed." Lucy smiled.

Woops. Think of something fast, Erza. "I am happy. Just tired, recently."

"The whole school is still freaking out about you and Gray so I understand." Lucy said. "But they'll learn to accept it. I mean, Gray's list of ex-girlfriends that is. So don't worry."

Erza faked a smile. It had only been three days since she lied to Lucy, and the guilt was slowly eating her up inside. Lucy was a really good friend. Erza had to think about discussing it with Gray and telling him that maybe Lucy could know about their little act.

"You're not gonna read his text?" Lucy asked.

Erza shook her head. "Maybe later."

* * *

"Erza already left?" Gray asked one of the girls in front of Fairy Hills that morning.

"Y-Yes, Gray-san. She just left a minute ago."

Gray frowned. "Thanks."

The raven haired seventeen year-old quickly dashed towards the main school building, only to find Erza there who was just about to enter the main gates.

"Erza!"

The scarlet-haired girl turned around to find Gray running towards her. "Gray." She acknowledged him.

He was panting by the time he was in front of her. "Why didn't you wait for me? I texted you to wait for me as usual."

Erza turned away from him. "I didn't notice." She continued to walk.

Gray was confused. What was wrong with her all of a sudden? She was fine yesterday. Gray was slightly anxious this morning when he didn't get a reply from Erza that morning. He hurriedly grabbed her wrist before she could get too far from him. She looked startled.

"Hey, we're supposed to hold hands." Gray said, slightly nervous.

She appeared as if she just realized something. Did she forget already that she was his fake girlfriend? "Oh."

Erza grabbed his hand and slowly clutched it, her warm fingers threading through his slightly cold ones. He stared at her hands for a second before he turned away his head away and walked beside her in silence.

* * *

Classes that morning had gone by smoothly and by the end of it Erza handed in her homework to Mr Clive.

"Early again aren't we Scarlet?" Mr Clive asked smiling. "The date's not due till next week. You finished it in a day?"

"Three hours, sir."

"I see having a boyfriend so far didn't stray your focus after all." Mr Clive laughed. Erza bowed modestly, still feeling slightly strange to have people calling _Gray_ her boyfriend. The news of Gray and Erza was so popular that even the teachers had taken notice of it. Erza did have a few teachers coming up to her yesterday to talk about it but after a lot of reassuring on Erza's part that she would not let this drop her grades, her teachers let her off, instead opting to keep a close eye on her.

Erza knew the teachers had high expectations for her. She walked back to her desk and sat down.

"On the other hand your boyfriend isn't doing so well." Their homeroom teacher smirked at Gray, causing the class to erupt in laughter.

"Hey!" Gray protested.

"Hand me the homework from last week, Fullbuster."

"I'm getting there! Too much practices lately."

"You're giving me that excuse, ya punk? I'm letting you off because you won our latest match against Paradise but you're not gonna last with that lame excuse. The other members of the team are doing well. You might wanna learn a thing or two from your girlfriend here." He said teasingly, referring to Erza of course, earning a few giggles from the girls in the class.

"Hey hey, Natsu didn't hand in his homework either!" Gray protested again.

Natsu who was slowly sinking into his chair the moment Gildarts talked about homework shot up at the mention of his name coming from Gray's mouth. "Gray, you bastard!"

"Yeah, that reminds me. Both of you, Dragneel, Fullbuster! Hurry up and give me that homework otherwise I'll give you extra practice." Gildarts narrowed his eyes on the two of them. "And you know it won't be pretty."

"I already handed it in yesterday, Coach!" Natsu protested.

"We all know you copied that from Miss Heartfilia, you lazy punk." The class erupted in laughter again.

Natsu turned his back towards Lucy hurriedly, looking betrayed. "You told him, Lucy?"

"No, I didn't!" Lucy angrily denied.

Natsu grumbled as the class laughed at him, Gray's laughs being the loudest.

Erza said nothing.

* * *

After only two days since announcing to the school that Gray and Erza was a couple, finally Erza had the reaction she had been waiting for.

When she opened her locker to store her books from the previous class, an envelope fell out. She looked around her, noting that no one looked particularly suspicious. Closing her locker, she bent down to pick it up. The envelope felt cool against her palm and Erza deducted that it was probably here for a while already. There was nothing there this morning before class, which meant that during the three hours of classes someone had slipped it in her locker without her knowledge. That meant whoever did it was someone who either skipped classes this morning, or slipped out of class for a bit, probably to stop by the toilet or something. She hurried and opened the envelope.

Inside was just a paper with a few words. This should be the first clue.

 ** _BREAK UP WITH GRAY FULLBUSTER NOW YOU BITCH! STOP USING HIM AS A REBOUND!_**

Erza couldn't help the tick on her forehead. _This little -_

This was a challenge. A battle.

Suddenly Erza gained spirit more than ever to capture this person. She hadn't felt this excited in a while.

Of course this "letter of challenge" as she liked to call it remained anonymous. Obviously, she didn't recognize the handwriting either.

The studious redhead reminded herself that she could end all of this as quickly as possible. She was already thinking up punishments for this brave person who dared to give her a hate letter and called her a bitch.

 _I'll be a bitch alright._

This might be easier than she thought. All she had to do was find out from the teachers in class which student was either absent, or stepped out of class recently. Unfortunately she would have to go through every single class in the high school section of Fairy Academy. That was a total of 15 classes, from the first years to the seniors in the third year.

If she couldn't find any answers, she would have to investigate the junior high section. Did Gray have admirers from the junior high section too?

 _Ugh. This is what happens when I get involved with popular guys._

Erza quickly shoved her memory of a certain blue-haired guy in the back of her mind. _Now's not the time._

She needed to hurry and tell Gray about this, unconsciously shoving last night's nightmare to the back of her mind as well.

* * *

The cafeteria was noisy as usual, although it was less noisy without the presence of Gray and Natsu, who usually made the most noise with their arguing and fighting. Lucy knew that Gray was off again alone with Erza but she had no idea where Natsu had run off to.

"Hey guys!" Lucy greeted her friends at their usual table. The blond realized not many of the girls were there.

"Lu-chan!" Levy grinned.

"Hey Lucy!" Lisanna greeted back.

Lucy sat down and looked around. "Where did everyone else go? It's just you two?"

"Jet and Droy had some homework to catch up on. They're supposed to hand it in by today." Levy said.

Lucy nodded. Everyone was having homework to catch up on recently. "The other girls?" She knew the guys sometimes liked to have lunch on the roof. They could freely be noisy there.

"Everyone's having lunch at other places. With their significant other." Lisanna rolled her eyes but there was no denying her tone sounded a bit like jealousy.

"Oh I see." Lucy laughed. "We're the only ones that aren't dating huh?"

"Lisanna shouldn't have a problem getting a boyfriend though." Levy said teasingly. Lisanna blushed slightly.

"Yeah, I heard a lot of guys are into you." Lucy said joining in. "Just pick one to date! Although if you start dating it'll only be me and Levy left!" She laughed.

"I'm not really interested…" Lisanna trailed off.

That was a total lie. Lucy could tell she wanted to date someone. She was obviously jealous for their other friends. She raised an eyebrow.

"You're still waiting for Natsu aren't you?" Levy teased again, nudging the white-haired girl playfully. Lisanna blushed even harder. She whispered loudly at Levy for her to quiet down.

 _Natsu?_

Lucy's honey-brown eyes widened. "You like Natsu?"

"D-Don't tell him!" Lisanna panicked.

"I had no idea…"

"Lisanna's liked Natsu for years. Too bad he's too stupid to notice." Levy sighed. Lisanna smacked Levy's shoulder, indicating that she should stop talking. "It's okay, Lucy's already one of us, right?"

"Well…"

Lucy was still shocked that someone actually liked Natsu in that way. Sure he was a nice guy but then…wait, was there to not like about him? He was kind, funny and an all round good guy. And it wasn't like he was ugly either (although he was quite messy or lazy but aren't all guys like that). And he was slightly clueless most of the time. Hmm…maybe she shouldn't have been so surprised.

She smiled at Lisanna encouragingly, "Don't worry! You can tell me too!"

Lisanna brightened. "Really? You wouldn't mind?"

"Of course not! We'll help you!" Lucy grinned at Levy who returned it. "What about you, Levy-chan? How are things progressing with Gajeel?"

Levy blushed. "Lu-chan! Shhh!"

"You should be happy! He came to school today didn't he?"

Lucy didn't know that Gajeel skipped school. "Was he sick yesterday or something?"

Levy nodded. "But he's okay today. Right, Lisanna?"

Lisanna was in the same class as Gajeel in 2-B next door. "Juvia's also in school today. Although she's been awfully quiet. Probably still shocked with the new couple."

Strange. Gajeel and Juvia both didn't attend school for two days and both attended again today. Maybe Lucy was just imagining it. "You didn't invite her to have lunch with us?"

"I did, but she said she was fine by herself." Lisanna shrugged.

Lucy was slightly worried. Juvia didn't seem like she was talking to anyone. And usually the blue-haired girl would have come to bother Lucy about Gray by now. Or not, since Gray was together with Erza. Maybe Juvia talked to Erza?

She was determined to talk to Juvia after school and hoped that Juvia was okay.

* * *

Gray and Erza were currently at the school library seated by the windows, their seats slightly hidden from the tall bookshelves lined up. At lunch time the library was the perfect place for some privacy since it was almost deserted with most of the students out for lunch. Erza wanted to squeeze some time to study and surprisingly Gray was okay joining her. His fake girlfriend encouraged him to finish his homework if he was going to hang around in the library with her, to which he grumbled but nonetheless complied.

Erza continuously was shocked by his behavior every day.

"I'm done!" Gray cheered, practically slamming his pencil down on the table. The clattering sound echoed loudly, prompting one of the librarians to scold him. Gray flushed slightly and sank lower into his seat.

Erza raised an eyebrow. "This isn't your first time in a library is it? Even children know that you should be quiet at a library."

"Shut up. Accidents happen." He grumbled.

Erza hid a smile. "Since you're finally done I think I should tell you." The redhead handed over a piece of paper to Gray. "I found this in my locker."

"What is this?"

"Just read it."

Erza watched as her fake boyfriend's face slowly changed from confusion, to curiosity and finally anger. He abruptly stood up and shouted "WHO THE FUCK WOULD DO THIS?!"

"Mr Fullbuster! Miss Scarlet! Detention after school!"

Erza gave her best death glare at Gray who had a look of horror and was slowly realizing what he had done. "Shit." He whispered.

"Shit is right." Erza gritted her teeth at him.

* * *

Erza had ignored Gray for the rest of their classes.

Just when he thought that Erza got over whatever was bothering her this morning (he didn't miss she acted a bit strange) and now he ruined the atmosphere between them again after getting her in trouble.

He even told Cana he wasn't going to get Erza in trouble after involving her in his problems. Damn.

The raven-haired basketball player knew it was his fault that they got detention but he couldn't help it. It just angered him that someone could write hate messages like that. And that anonymous person had been sending all this hate to his previous girlfriends? This was outright bullying!

Once he and Erza tracked down this person, he was going to end all of this bullshit once and for all.

The bell rung indicating the last class for the day. After being piled up with homework as usual, class 2-A bowed and hurried to their respectful after school activities.

Natsu was laughing with Lucy as usual when he was interrupted by Gray who handed him a small blue file. He and Lucy eyed the file curiously. "What?"

"Homework. Give it to Gildarts for me."

To say Natsu was shocked was an understatement. "YOU ACTUALLY FINISHED IT?!" Lucy felt a strange urge to applaud.

So she did.

Gray's forehead ticked in irritation at the two idiots in front of him. "Erza helped me out at lunch." He gritted out.

Lucy brightened. She glanced at Erza and raised her eyebrows up and down teasingly. But Erza only looked towards Lucy and raised an eyebrow in confusion, her face showing no signs of shyness or embarrassment.

The blond sweat-dropped. It wasn't that fun teasing Erza. Was the redhead just a different girl when it came to love/dating after all? Most girls would definitely be a bit shy. Lucy knew she would be a flustered mess if she ever was ready to date a guy she liked.

Come to think of it, Erza claimed that she had been dating Gray for a week already despite only going public three days ago, but not once did she see Erza in a flustered, dream-like state like most girls in love.

If anything, _Gray_ was the one looking more flustered and embarrassed about dating than Erza was. Strange, since this wasn't even his first time dating. Unless he was always like this in the past, which Lucy never knew since she just recently got to know her friends a little over a month ago.

"You can give it to Gildarts yourself, you lazy snow cone." Natsu argued.

"I can't go to practice today. I got detention." Gray muttered.

"WHATTT?!" Both Natsu and Lucy's jaw dropped. "Why?" "But we haven't even fought in public yet today!" Lucy smacked Natsu for that.

"He was being loud in the library." Erza said after quietly watching their interaction. She glared at Gray again, to which he flinched. Natsu snickered.

"Wait! You got detention too Erza?!" Lucy asked shocked. What was going on with these two?

Erza just nodded. Lucy's jaw dropped even lower if that was possible. She had never heard of Erza getting detention before. So she glared at Gray too.

"I said I was sorry!" Gray protested.

Lucy crossed her arms. "Gray, how could you? Erza was aiming for -"

" - don't worry, Lucy." Erza interrupted. "This won't affect anything." She looked like she was trying to convince herself, Lucy thought.

Gray looked towards Erza curiously. He was about to say something but was interrupted by Natsu's boisterous laugh. "THIS IS GOLD! AHAHAHA -" He was cut off by Lucy who pinched his ear and twisted it. The pink-haired idiot whined helplessly. "Lushiii~"

The blond ignored his whining of course. She snatched the file and shoved it in Natsu's hands."I'll make sure he gives your homework to Gildarts-sensei, Gray. Let's go, Natsu!" She dragged Natsu by the ear and then was gone.

* * *

Throughout detention, Erza still ignored Gray. She instead was focused on completing some extra homework that she had personally asked for the previous day. She planned on completing the one they were assigned today tonight.

"Psst~" Gray tried to call for his "girlfriend" for the umpth time which annoyed Erza to no end. "Erza!" He nudged her chair in front of him with his feet.

"We'll talk after detention." Was all she said finally, not wanting the teacher currently in charge to scold them.

After detention was finally over and hearing the last bit of warning from the teacher, Erza made her way to her locker in a hurry. Gray trailed after her. "Erza, are you still mad?"

"No."

"Then, why are you acting mad?"

"I'm not acting mad or anything, Gray."

Gray was annoyed. Maybe she really wasn't mad. Since when did Erza have to act mad, anyway? When she was mad or angry, she showed it. Very passionately, in fact. Although Gray hadn't seen her lose her temper in a while.

Not since -

"Gray."

"H-Huh?"

"I got another note."

Gray's eyes widened. "Let me see!" He snatched the piece of paper from Erza's hand.

 ** _ERZA "SLUTTY" SCARLET! STOP BEING SLUTTY AROUND GRAY-SAMA 24/7! YOU DISGUST ME!_**

Erza already having read the note, looking around the hallways but most of the students had already gone home by now. The hallways were empty. She placed her fingers below her chin in thinking mode.

Gray on the other hand was clenching his fists in pure anger. He almost crushed the note before Erza smacked his hands harshly. "Don't go destroying it. That's proof."

"How can you be so calm?! Who the fuck is this person?!"

Erza placed her fingers on Gray's lips, rendering him speechless and staring at her in shock. "Shut up." She whispered, leaning close to his face. She stood up slightly on her tippy toes to get closer.

"E-Erza...w-what are you -"

 _What the fuck was happening?!_ Gray screamed in his head. His heartbeat accelerated, almost leaping out of his chest. He hadn't felt this flustered in a long time.

 _Calm down, calm down...it's just Erza...calm down..._

The scarlet-haired girl had already brought her face close to Gray's, her warm hands splayed out on his slightly cool cheeks, her breath fanning on his in small huffs. Gray couldn't help but close his eyes and braced himself.

* * *

 _"Is this Jellal Fernandes-san?"_

 _"Yes? Who is this?"_

 _"Ju-I heard you were Erza Scarlet's ex-boyfriend."_

 _"What? Is something wrong with her? Is she okay?"_

 _"From your tone I can tell you are still very much worried for your ex-girlfriend, Jellal-san."_

 _"Is Erza okay or not?"_

 _"Erza-san is fine."_

 _"Why are you calling me then?"_

 _"If it's not too much trouble, I want to meet up with you."_

 _"I don't have any reasons to meet up with Erza's friends."_

 _"I have a reason. Please, I want to know about Erza-san from you. Nobody knows Erza-san like you do."_

 _"Why do I have to agree? There's no benefit for me whatsoever."_

 _"Aren't you curious about your ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend?"_

 _"Gray Fullbuster?"_

 _"Y-Yes. I propose we help each other out, Jellal-san."_

 _"...I'm listening..."_

* * *

 _A/N: Things are progressing veerryy slowly imo. What's wrong with me? xD_ _._

 _Thanks for all the feedback! Keep those reviews coming! They make my day! Love you guys so much! :DD_

 _-10:48AM_

 _-20/10/15_


	10. Heartbroken and Determined

_A/N: My first incredibly short chapter. Sorry! The next one will be long I promise! I'll have it out with my other two fics. I just haven't finished editing it yet and I got impatient so I posted this first._

 _Shoutout to the reviewers! **Absolute-ZERO999, CANNONBALL (Guest), Guest 2, Leonardo the Hedgehog, That Awesome Indian Girl,**_ _and **PinkKoala213!** And thanks to all the new **follows** and **faves!** I never knew how much strangers could make me feel so happy :'D_

 _Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail_

 _Anyways, as usual, let me know what you think in the review section! (if there's anything worth talking about in this short chapter that is...)_

* * *

 _ **Faking and Loving**_

 _ **Chapter 9**_

* * *

Erza placed her fingers on Gray's lips, rendering him speechless and staring at her in shock. "Shut up." She whispered, leaning close to his face. She stood up slightly on her tippy toes to get closer.

"E-Erza...w-what are you -"

 _What the fuck was happening?!_ Gray screamed in his head. His heartbeat accelerated, almost leaping out of his chest. He hadn't felt this flustered in a long time.

 _Calm down, calm down...it's just Erza...calm down..._

The scarlet-haired girl had already brought her face close to Gray's, her warm hands splayed out on his slightly cool cheeks, her breath fanning on his in small huffs. Gray couldn't help but close his eyes and braced himself.

A few seconds passed and Gray came to find out that Erza was not aiming for his lips but for his ears. "Plan failure." She whispered to him, her breath fanned lightly at the side of his face.

His eyes that were closed popped open. "What?!"

She flicked his forehead. "Don't shout in my ears, stripper." She gently pushed him away, leaving him speechless for a few seconds.

"Why would you –" He began. Erza looked at him confused. He lightly coughed and covered his mouth in attempt to force down the blush creeping up his cheeks. "– I thought you were gonna kiss me or some shit like that."

Erza smirked. "Oh? Were you hoping for it?"

"N-NO!"

"Relax, didn't I tell you there would be no kissing?"

"Then why?" He asked after calming down a bit, the heat on his cheeks finally gone.

Erza's face became serious. It was normal for her to have this sort of expression, Gray thought. "Remember when you told me that every time you tried to kiss your girlfriends on school grounds something bad always happened that basically interrupted you? Something bad that happened to the girl in particular at that moment?"

Gray became uncomfortable at Erza's mention of his past girlfriends. He wasn't sure why. "Yeah." His girlfriends always panicked at the last second for some strange reason.

"Well, I thought maybe the person who gave me the note might be the same person who's done the sabotaging all this time. And I was testing whether that person was still around here. Maybe they're watching our every move."

"But nothing's happened to you when you were about to kiss me." Gray said.

"True. So maybe this note wasn't sent just now. That person isn't around here. I thought I could've caught them somehow if they pulled off something while I tried to kiss you."

"Then we should pretend doing it public. That should get more of a reaction." There wasn't anyone around at the moment, as it was long past the time when everyone was done with after school activities and it was time to go home.

"Okay. But there is still the possibility that there is more than one person that's doing it." Erza said.

"What?!"

"The person giving these notes could be different from the person who likes sabotaging you in the middle of your make-out session."

"Hey! I don't…make out in public…" He said lamely.

Erza snorted. "Public or not, you did it when your stalker was watching. I'll investigate these notes first. The handwriting looks the same though, but who knows? I could be dealing with more than just one jealous fangirl."

Gray looked at the scarlet-haired girl, unable to keep the concern off his face. "You'll…be okay right?"

The redhead smiled at his awkward attempt at caring. It wasn't this way before. There was still that awkwardness lingering the two of them, and Erza knew that if she wanted her friend back, she would need to work hard. "What's the worst that could happen? I always am okay anyway, right?"

"Right." Gray couldn't help but smile back.

* * *

"Lu-chan! We're going karaoke after school, you wanna come with?" Levy asked, her two best friends Jet and Droy loyally by her side.

"Ah, sorry! I uh…I have to go meet up with someone. Bye!" Lucy replied in a hurry. She was out the door in an instant.

Lucy buzzed through the hallways and finally arrived at class 2-B. She sighed disappointedly as there was no one in the classroom.

 _Looks like I can't speak with her today,_ Lucy thought.

Just when she thought that, as she exited the main gates of Fairy Academy, she saw the person she had been looking for, who was currently walking towards the nearest bus stop.

"Juvia!" She shouted, loud enough for said person to turn around to see the blond running up to her.

"Lucy-san?"

The blond panted heavily as she faced the blue-haired girl. "H-Hey!" She greeted.

God, she was never much of a runner.

Juvia wore a frown. "What does Lucy-san want with Juvia?"

 _She didn't call me love rival. Weird._

Lucy gave a nervous smile. "Are you doing anything? Uh…I wanted to ask you to hang out with me!"

She raised an eyebrow. "Hang out?"

"Well, actually I wanted to talk to you. I could treat you to something if you want." Lucy tried to convince.

"Why is Lucy-san talking to Juvia?"

Lucy scratched the back of her neck. "I was worried about you, I guess. You've been away from school for two days."

"Two days isn't anything to worry about."

 _It is since you skipped school right after Gray got a girlfriend_ , she thought. "Look, I heard you were sick, and I just…I wanted to confirm you're okay. Since you haven't…well, you haven't been talking to me lately."

Juvia looked down. "You mean Juvia hasn't been annoying you about staying away from Gray-sama lately." She said.

Lucy laughed nervously. "Yeah, well, there's that too. I mean, are you -"

"Juvia is not okay."

"Eh?"

"Gray-sama has a girlfriend, but it is not Juvia. Juvia has failed again." She said, her voice on the verge of cracking.

"Juvia…" Lucy looked at her sadly.

Her sobs were more apparent now. "When will Juvia be worthy of Gray-sama?" She cried out, her voice louder than it was before.

People were starting to look towards their direction, and Lucy was openly panicking. She grabbed onto Juvia and said loudly to her, "Let's get out of here, okay?"

Juvia nodded, her face was still down, unable to look up.

 _Somewhere private_ …Lucy thought. _I'll just take her to the dorms. Juvia doesn't live in the dorms does she?_

Lucy thought she had determined what to do, but then she kicked herself mentally.

 _I can't bring her to my room_ , Lucy thought, feeling stupid, _I share a room with Erza, her real rival in love for God sakes!_

As she hugged the blue-haired girl on the side of the street near the bus stop, she quickly pulled out her phone. Levy was out going karaoke she supposed, Lisanna who shared a room with her usually stayed at the dorms after school. She had to call someone who was usually out till nightfall.

She dialed the number. "Cana, I need to borrow your room."

* * *

 _"Are you sure you want to do this, Jellal?"_

 _"Yes."_

 _"But you don't need to go so far as to -"_

 _"- Just this once, I want to do something for myself."_

 _"What brought this on all of a sudden? Just a few days ago you were moping that she -"_

 _"I know. But it's different now. I've already decided. I can't hesitate anymore."_

 _"Look, I know I convinced you to go after her but...you have to be ready."_

 _"I've been ready for two years. If she wants to reject me the second time, I'll have to accept it..."_

 _"And you're okay with that?"_

 _"No, but I have to make sure."_

 _"Make sure of what?"_

 _"That she still loves me."_

 _"Just...don't expect too much. She's got a boyfriend after all."_

 _"I know. Just one chance."_

 _"Don't pretend to be a dick like last time. Even if her boyfriend is with her."_

 _"I'll try."_


	11. Is it even real?

_A/N: I keep breaking my promises. I'm so sorry. But at least this is a long chapter (I hope)._

 _Shout out to the lovely reviewers from the previous chapter! **PinkKoala213, SeoSakurachan, Iceberry2666, Leonardo the Hedgehog, CelestialTitania, That Awesome Indian Girl, Absolute-ZERO999, TheDelta724!**_

 _Also thank you to the new followers and faves!_

 _Hope you guys enjoy this chapter! I took too long editing this. Please point it out to me if there are any grammar mistakes etc._

* * *

 _ **Faking and Loving**_

 _ **Chapter 10**_

* * *

 _ **DAY 5**_

It had been three days since Erza had received the hate notes.

And throughout those three days those notes were left continuously in her locker. She had discovered a pattern when she found the notes in her locker. Just before lunch after class she would find one and around 5:00 when club activities were over she'd find another one. After the pretend kiss attempt, she hadn't done much with Gray besides the usual hand-holding, joining him for lunch and helping him out with homework after school. Despite agreeing to pretend to publicly kiss, in the end Erza rejected the idea. Gray was quite puzzled, though Erza mentioned that she wanted to catch the person giving the notes first. Maybe that person could be the same person that didn't like seeing Gray kiss girls and instead sabotaged the poor girls instead. Anyhow, she was going to find out.

Their friends thought they were on a date almost every day but really Erza just helped him out with homework. But it was perfectly fine for Erza if they wanted to think that that way.

Honestly she was looking forward to just eating cake (he promised to treat her after all if she went through with this). But if Gray wanted to ask for help with homework, who was she to refuse? And discussing homework did help diminish the slight awkward tension that still lingered. Erza was never much of a talkative person, she liked just listening to her friends chat and she would join in sometimes if she knew what they were talking about. Back then, Gray was the one that always talked, he _always_ had something to say to her.

He _always_ had something to share with her.

It might have been just pure bragging on what accomplishments he did for the whole day, but he always attempted to talk to her, and for some reason, when Gray was around she would say more than she usually did. It was usually just comments to shoot him down though.

Him and that overconfident grin of his.

There were also those few times when they just sat quietly together. Without Natsu around, there was always a different air around them, something Erza couldn't quite recognize. She wasn't the type to talk to her friends about her personal problems and she realized she usually hid behind the rough exterior of hers.

Some of them were fooled, but Gray usually wasn't.

" _You're not okay, are you?" He'd ask when he finally found her, alone and near tears._

" _What are you, a stalker? How do you always find me?" Erza would say, pretending to be rough, but she was still obviously rubbing off her tears in attempt to hide them._

" _S-Shut up! I just know okay?" He said, a tiny blush painted on his cheeks. He shoved a handkerchief in her hand. "I know you're not gonna tell me what's going on, but if you ever do…use this before saying anything." He said, referring to the handkerchief. "Don't use your sleeves. It's disgusting."_

" _You stripping out in the open right now is what's more disgusting."_

" _Crap!"_

She smiled at the memory.

But of course things weren't really the same now. If it weren't for helping him out with homework, or talking about the mission, she wouldn't know what to say to him. And he, never talked much to her anymore, which was a given.

Erza was determined to quietly use this favor of his as a way to be friends again. That was for certain.

She shook her head. Time to focus.

Erza had wanted to catch the culprit days before, but her schedule simply didn't allow it. And yesterday when he schedule was free, she was called by one of her teachers to talk about her "future" after graduation.

But today was perfect. She had found out the day before that the book club wouldn't have any after school activities so she would definitely have time to investigate.

Gray offered to help but she declined. It was something she could handle alone. He was stubborn at first but after she reminded him that he had basketball practice almost every day, and that she knew he had another game coming up, he reluctantly complied.

" _You're passionate about basketball aren't you? Then don't lose focus. What else can we focus on but the things we love?"_ Erza had told him.

Gray had been shocked at her words. Maybe he had noticed she had changed a bit. Although neither of them brought up the argument that had caused the two of them to distance themselves from each other.

They were still quite awkward but they were civil. And perhaps, just a little, they finally understood each other. Maybe there was no need to bring up the past.

And maybe, Erza thought, maybe Gray had stopped hating her.

* * *

"You want to know the students that were absent in my class?" Porlyusica-sensei asked.

Erza nodded. "Yes. Even for a short while. Were there any students absent during the time between 8:30am till 10:30am in class 2-B during Chemistry, sensei?"

"All of them were present. Nobody dares to skip my class." She replied.

"Then, during second and third period today? I believe you were in class 2-C and class 3-B?"

Porlyusica-sensei was surprised Erza knew her schedule. "Everyone was present, Erza. However, there _was_ a student that left early during fourth period after lunch."

This was it! Porlyusica-sensei was the only teacher left that Erza didn't investigate yet, so this must be the clue to finding out the culprit who left those notes!

"Which class was that?" Erza asked eagerly.

"1-B. But I don't remember the student specifically. I still have trouble remembering all the first-years."

 _The first-years?_ "It's good enough sensei. Thank you!" Erza thanked her Chemistry teacher before rushing off to class 1-B.

As soon as she arrived, she sighed in relief as she saw one person in the classroom. He had his back turned so she couldn't make out who he was, not that she really knew the first-year students much either.

Erza hurried and slid open the door while shouting "Excuse me!" in that harsh, strict tone she was so used to.

Her determined look turned into a flustered shock as she mistook one person for actually two people that were currently making out.

 _What?_

Both the students turned to the loud gasp that echoed in the classroom and saw the Erza Scarlet currently looking at them in a flustered state, no doubt.

Erza gasped as she took in the state of the two students, one male and one female. The female student was in a state of half-undress, the blouse of the Fairy Academy school uniform were unbuttoned all the way down, leaving her pink, lacy bra apparent. Even her skirt was slightly ridden up and her tie was obviously loose, lying on the floor. The girl who's legs were wrapped tightly around the boy's waist immediately dropped to the ground as she pushed him away and let out an embarrassed "Stupid!"

The girl had quickly ran out of the classroom, not bothering to pick up her loose tie on the ground, leaving the boy she had apparently made out with to snicker, even as he was currently sitting on his butt; the result of being pushed to the ground.

All the while Erza continued to gape as she processed the sight in front of her just now. In this classroom, how could they –

"Erza Scarlet-san?"

"Huh?"

"Did you need something?" The blond boy smiled.

Erza finally snapped out of her trance. "Y-Yes, a-actually I was –" Erza couldn't believe she was stuttering at a time like this.

Focus!

If she didn't do it now, she would have to wait until school started again next Monday. It would be such a waste of time.

"Erza-san, can I ask you the trouble of helping me up?"

Erza was still a flushed mess, nonetheless she stepped forward approaching the boy that was still sitting on his butt at the corner of the classroom. She held out her hand to which the boy gracefully took in his hands, but before Erza realized what was going on she was pulled to the ground by the blond boy and in a second she was lying on the ground.

The redhead groaned at the impact and looked up to see the blond boy _straddling_ her. She frowned, no traces of blush present on her face anymore.

"What are you doing?" She asked almost glaring.

"I think I should be asking you. What is the famous Erza Scarlet doing in a first year's classroom after school hours? Not to mention you interrupted me in the rudest way possible." He said, his voice silky smooth as he lowered his body slightly closer to Erza, his face nearing hers.

Erza's frown deepened though her face was still calm showing no discomfort with his proximity. "I wanted to ask someone about the student in this class that left early from school during Porlyusica-sensei's class today. You're in this class aren't you? What's your name?" She asked, her voice oozing with authority. It was a habit she couldn't grow out of, even after she quit the student council.

The boy chuckled. "Eve Tilm. Nice to meet you, Erza-senpai."

Eve. Where did she hear that name from? "You haven't answered my other question. Do you know or not? If not, then I will be on my way."

"I don't. But more importantly," Erza ticked at his fast dismissal of her question, "are you really dating Gray Fullbuster?"

The position they were in slowly started to become more uncomfortable to Erza. Eve was in no way crushing her body to the ground, though the hardness of the floor was undeniably getting to her.

But this Eve guy, whoever he really was, asked her as if he was challenging her. As if he was waiting for her to cause an outburst?

Erza wasn't sure. She had to be careful. "Stories spread fast, don't they? Even to the first years."

"It's all anyone's talking about, after all."

"Nice." Erza deadpanned. "Will you please get off of me before I push you off myself? You wouldn't want to get pushed around a second time today, would you?"

The boy showed obvious irritation at her remark. He finally distanced his face away from her and got up, dusting off the dirt on his pants. Stretching his hand out towards Erza, he asked, "I worry for you, Erza-san. Being Gray Fullbuster's girlfriend must be hard on you."

The redhead stood up, blatantly ignoring his attempt to help. "I'm not interested in knowing your experience as Gray's ex, Eve."

Eve gaped for a second before clear ticks were almost visible on his forehead.

"Well, this was a complete waste of time. Thanks for nothing." Erza said almost in monotone, as she left the classroom without looking back.

Not looking back was probably one of the biggest mistakes Erza had ever done.

* * *

Lucy sighed as she closed her locker.

It had been three days since the blond girl talked to Juvia in Cana's room and she could not get the conversation out of her mind.

When they had gotten to Cana's room, before Lucy managed to ask anything, the blue-haired girl only cried her heart out. They both literally just sat there on Cana's bed, with Lucy wrapping her arms around the girl that had only previously been harassing her about her close friendship with her beloved Gray-sama.

Lucy asked herself why she was going through with this. She wanted to help out this girl and maybe instead of being pretend love-rivals, they could actually be friends. However, she had no idea on how to help a girl heal a broken heart. She had never got into a relationship with someone more than friendship nor had she ever been seriously in love with someone before to actually experience a broken heart.

" _Juvia, I'm sure there's a better guy out there for you. Gray's not the only one!" Lucy tried to cheer her up her new friend as her sobs slowly came to a stop after thirty minutes of pure heartwrenching sobs and tears._

" _Gray-sama is the only one for Juvia. Juvia has tried everything she can to make Gray-sama love Juvia. But Gray-sama is in love with another girl."_

" _But Gray isn't in love with Erza though." Lucy accidentally blurted out._

 _Uh oh._

" _What?! Lucy-san, is that true?!" Juvia asked hopefully, unshed tears still present._

What the hell is wrong with you, Lucy? Are you supporting Juvia now? _A part of her brain asked._

But I'm only telling the truth! Erza said Gray isn't in love with her or anything _, Lucy hastily answered back in defense._

Your best friend Erza likes him though, remember? _Her subconscious continued to argue with her._

Shit, that's true _. Lucy thought._ But she doesn't seem like it. _Lucy unintentionally remembered the times she questioned herself whether Erza actually liked Gray. Maybe it was because of her personality that Lucy hadn't quite understood yet, but Erza seemed too…normal for a girl to claim to like Gray a lot._

You think Erza's lying? She'd never do that!

" _I mean…love is such a strong word, Juvia." Lucy tried to reason. "They're only dating. And Gray changes girlfriends all the time remember?" Not that Lucy actually wanted Gray to break up with her redhead friend, but Erza said herself that she would be fine if things didn't turn out well and they just stayed friends, right? Compared to Erza who only likes Gray but would be fine if they were friends, Juvia was so obviously deeply in love with him that she looked like she'd literally be sick if she weren't his girlfriend…or something._

" _But when Juvia sees Gray-sama with Erza-san, it feels different. It's not like his past girlfriends."_

Does Juvia keep watch of Gray's exes? How does she even know? " _That's probably because Erza's his friend first and foremost. Of course Gray treats her differently than his exes that were…"Lucy was about to say 'fangirls just like you' but she knew that wouldn't help the situation, "not his friends." She finished lamely._

" _So Lucy-san is saying I shouldn't give up hope? Gajeel-kun said the same thing!" Juvia held on to Lucy's hands tightly._

 _Lucy forgot that Juvia Lockser who was terribly in love with her friend Gray, was best friends with the scary Gajeel Redfox, who also happened to be teammates with Gray and Lucy's friend, Levy's crush. Huh._

" _Although Gajeel-kun told Juvia to not give up for different reasons."_

" _Different reasons?"_

" _Gajeel-kun said it's possible that Gray-sama and Erza-san aren't a real couple."_

"What is that supposed to mean?!" Lucy shouted frustratingly. That didn't make any sense. What kind of bullshit was this Gajeel guy spouting?

But Lucy seriously needed to get her priorities straight. Who did she want to support being with Gray?

No doubt, if she was biased, she'd want Erza to be with Gray. But if Erza wasn't interested in Gray, then might as well support the girl who's terribly, almost-obsessively in love with him, right? If she wanted to support Erza, she was going to have to confirm Erza's feelings. At least while Gray doesn't have feelings for her yet.

Was she brave enough though? To suddenly ask her friend, "Erza, do you actually like Gray? If you don't maybe you should let this other girl have a chance since she's terribly in love with Gray and I feel bad for her. It'd be okay since you said yourself that you'd be fine if your relationship doesn't work out, right? And Gray isn't interested in you yet, right?"

THERE WAS NO WAY SHE COULD ASK ERZA THAT!

Even if there was a nicer way to ask, she doubt she'd be able to run away unscathed. Erza, while she was a dear friend to Lucy, was still very scary no doubt. The blond was too scared to ask her.

This meant Lucy had to find another way to determine Erza's feelings for Gray.

She didn't really show how she felt about Gray around Lucy. Maybe Erza just was not the type to gossip about such things, at least from what Lucy had seen so far. Maybe she only showed affection for Gray and Gray only.

Lucy was going to have to check out their real relationship for herself. That meant, she was going to have to stalk on their dates.

Did she really have to stoop low as to stalk on a couple's date?

But it would be one way to see how both of them treat the other. At school, Lucy had never seen Gray and Erza do anything more than hold hands. Perhaps it was Erza's policy or something, since she heard from Cana that Gray didn't have a problem with making out on the stairs with his previous girlfriends. Maybe Erza hated PDA.

Lucy just realized there were a lot of things about Erza she knew nothing about.

She was going to have to find out when Gray and Erza's next date was. Where _did_ they usually go after school anyway?

"You've been looking really ugly all day."

Lucy spun around in surprise to see Natsu leaning by the locker beside her, his arms crossed while looking at her with almost a bored expression.

She fumed, "Well, sorry my face isn't appealing enough!"

"What's wrong?" Natsu asked frowning."You're making that kind of face, and it doesn't suit you."

Lucy breathed in and out, trying to calm herself down. She shouldn't be taking it out on Natsu. "Just…relationship problems, I guess." She said sighing, not noticing Natsu's eyes widen in surprise before wearing an even deeper frown than before.

"With who-"

"Lucy!"

Both Lucy and Natsu turned their heads to see Loke approaching them, his hand waving in greeting and his eyes focused solely on the blond beauty.

"Loke." Lucy politely greeted him back with a smile. "It's rare to see you alone," she said jokingly.

Loke was one of the most popular guys in school after all, next to Gray, despite not actually being a part of a popular club himself, unlike Gray who became popular after becoming ace for the basketball team. Like Gray, he was always seen with a bunch of girls, though Loke especially loved the attention, while Gray, Lucy observed, just tolerated it.

"Oh? Are you happy to see me without other girls? Don't worry, Lucy. You'll always be number one in my heart." Loke said, his voice silky smooth as ever.

Lucy felt her sweat dripping. This guy was flirtatious as ever, not that Lucy took any of his flirting attempts seriously. "Really, now?" She tried to humor him.

"Yo, Loke." Natsu said all of a sudden, his expression quite emotionless. Lucy felt like it was the first time she saw that kind of expression.

"Oh? Natsu was here? I didn't notice."

 _Bastard…_

Natsu was frowning a little too much than usual, Lucy noticed. He seemed a bit tense. She would have to ask him later but she was in a hurry. She would call Natsu tonight. "Well, I gotta head back to my room now. It's getting late. I'll see you guys on Monday." She waved at Natsu who was about to wave back when suddenly her hand was grabbed gently by none other than Loke. "Huh?"

"Lucy, I have something I need to talk to you about." Loke said, his face quite serious. It was a rather different look on him.

"Um, okay. What is it?"

Loke turned to see Natsu who was curiously leaning in wanting to hear. Nope, that wouldn't do. "Can we talk…in _private_?" He emphasized glancing over at Natsu who was now pretending not to hear the conversation.

"Sure. Natsu, see you next Monday!" Lucy waved to him as she followed to wherever Loke was taking her.

After walking a few steps Lucy looked back to see Natsu still staring at her, an unreadable look on his face.

* * *

"So, what did you want to tell me?"

They were exiting the academy's main entrance gate; there weren't a lot of students left hanging around the school grounds. It was already so late. Lucy hoped she would have time to catch up to dinner as she looked at the time displayed on her phone.

Loke cleared his throat. All of a sudden he was overcome with a feeling of nervousness. Rarely did that happen. Lucy wasn't the first beautiful girl he encountered. "Would you like to go out with me?"

Lucy's head spun around so fast to look at him. "WHAT?"

The nervousness increased tenfold. "I wanted to ask you out, on Sunday."

Was this really happening? Lucy had always known that Loke was quite the flirt, and he would try to flirt with her every day. She didn't mind it all that much, knowing for a fact that it was just harmless flirting. Though she did always make sure to brush him off, since Loke always had other girls to attend to, and she didn't want any extra attention on her. It was enough that Juvia thought she was out to get Gray, she sighed.

"So?"

Lucy looked up at the ginger-haired boy in front of her. He was quite earnest and he was a nice friend. But she wasn't really ready to date anyone. Especially popular pretty boys like Loke. And the fact that her dad wouldn't like it one bit. "Um, sorry, Loke. I can't."

Loke had a feeling he was going to be rejected but that didn't help his disheartened expression any better. "Why?"

"Oh…uh, my dad doesn't let me have a boyfriend." Lucy laughed nervously. It _was_ true. Lucy almost protested at first, but maybe her dad knew her better than she did. She wasn't in the mood to be dating anyway. She already had trouble making friends before getting into Fairy Academy. Honestly if it weren't for Natsu, she wouldn't know how to be friends with so many people on the first day.

Her reasoning made Loke smile. He hid his relief. "That's good, because I wasn't asking to be your boyfriend, Lucy."

Lucy blushed in embarrassment. "You weren't? How silly of me!" _God, I knew this guy was just joking around._ Lucy, why'd you just take him seriously now?

"I just wanted to ask for a date. On Sunday."

"Um…" Dates, boyfriend, pretty much the same thing in Lucy's opinion. A date was one step to getting into a relationship right? "I'm not sure."

"It's just one date. How about if I say it can be just a friendly date?" Loke felt like he was losing his touch. He knew Lucy wouldn't agree so easily, but now he had to reduce his fantasy of a romantic date with Lucy to a friendly one?

To hell with it. As long as he could spend some time alone with her right? Maybe after one date she might think twice and let him take her on real romantic ones.

"My father wouldn't want me to be alone with a boy unless for um…studious reasons."

 _That was the best excuse you could come up with? Just say you can't date!_ Lucy thought.

"Oh, then it would be no problem. We won't be alone." Loke gave a charming but fake smile. Not that Lucy knew.

"What do you mean?"

"It's a double date!"

"I still am not-"

"With Gray and Erza!" Loke blurted out.

Lucy stopped in shock. She looked at Loke with wide curious eyes. "How do you know? Erza didn't tell me anything."

Loke laughed nervously. "Gray's my best friend too and um…he just talked to me about it. He was going to take Erza out to…" - _stop talking - "_ to that new amusement park that opened near Onibus."

Lucy wasn't convinced. "And Erza agreed to it?" Erza did say her weekend was spent on more studying. Wait, she had a boyfriend now.

"Yeah! I mean, Gray had a hard time convincing her but in the end she agreed. But Gray was worried Erza would be nervous, since they've never gone out on a proper date besides spending time together at cafes after school, so I suggested maybe we could tag along. And we can leave them alone when Erza's more comfortable."

Loke was so impressed with his lie. How did he manage to come up with all that?

But he was pleasantly surprised when Lucy's honey brown eyes brightened with excitement. This was the perfect chance to spy on Gray and Erza's current relationship, without actually having to resort to stalking! Plus, this was also the first time she would get to see Erza actually have fun! And of course, this would be her first date but she suppose it didn't really count as she had other things to focus on, like possibly seeing how Erza actually acts around Gray. Was she the lovey dovey type? Lucy didn't know. There were a lot of things she had yet to learn about her roommate. Loke was like a knight in shining armor at this point though, giving her this chance. She grabbed on to his left arm and nodded enthusiastically. "Okay! I'll go!"

Loke continued to smile charmingly, but he didn't feel as happy as he thought it would, since he just lied to the girl he was interested in getting to know of. Now he was going to have to convince Gray to take out his fake girlfriend?

Oh boy.

* * *

" _It's been a while since you called…"_

" _It's only been a week."_

" _It was_ that _long."_

" _Always the joker."_

" _I know I shouldn't be bothering you -"_

" _\- You know that's not true..."_

" _I just really want to see you…"_

" _Me too…I just have to deal with some stuff at school first."_

" _Oh…"_

" _But don't worry. I'll have it sorted out quickly."_

" _I'll wait."_

" _I'm sorry-"_

" _It's okay. I want to wait. I miss you, Erza. So much."_

" _I miss you too."_


	12. Suspicions

_A/N: My updates have been horrible lately. So much distraction. Real life and Tumblr. Plus, a minor writer's block. This is a slightly short chapter. Next one will be long, I promise._

 _Shout out to the reviewers! **Absolute-ZERO999, CuteKitty264, TheDelta724, PinkKoala213, AmantesPatriae, , mira chan (Guest), Mikana (Guest), IT'SMEFROMTUMBLR (Guest)**_

 _Thank you so much for the reviews! A lot of you are wondering who the person Erza was talking with on the phone? That's a mystery that'll take a while before the reveal (I'll drop hints every now and then) :DD_

 _To mira chan (Guest) that asked me about Kpop bias and what not, look up my profile! Thank you for the suggestion!_

 _Please point out any mistakes I might have missed!_

 _Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail_

* * *

 ** _Faking and Loving_**

 ** _Chapter 11_**

* * *

Gray had just finished practice and was waiting for Erza as usual in front of the academy gates. She was late for the first time. He wondered if there was anything up.

So far it had been really easy on Gray the past few days, ever since he had asked Erza for that big favor. Practice was going smoothly; he was able to hand in all his homework that he hadn't managed to do, and ever since he got a "girlfriend", he didn't feel like he was constantly on the watch anymore. Sure, there were some girls that came to see him practice, but he hadn't felt the need to be polite to them like usual, and gave the excuse that he was meeting up with his "girlfriend."

With his past girlfriends it wasn't like this, strangely. His "admirers" continued to pester him and say things like "Aww but it will only be for a while. Your girlfriend won't mind, right?" It was seriously annoying, but he never really outright says it to the girls.

Now if they approached him after practice, he easily gave the excuse that he was meeting up with Erza, and the girls would immediately give up and let him pass.

What was even better was that he had not seen Juvia Lockser once since he had claimed to have a girlfriend.

Did she finally take a hint and back down? Strange, she never did before even with his previous girlfriends. What was so different about Erza that made them less persistent than usual?

Maybe these girls just didn't want to piss of Erza. She's _Erza_ after all.

He really needed to thank Erza properly. The scarlet-haired girl was even helping him with his homework when they were on their "dates." Having someone tutor him was making it easier to study. The only reason he hadn't done his homework was because he hadn't the faintest idea on how to do it. Now that he actually understood in class, and Erza helping him, even his studies was going smoothly.

For now, the only thing he needed to worry about was the upcoming games. Erza said she would handle the rest of his problems, which would be the sabotaging incident. He complied, knowing that Erza had always been a little too independent.

He glanced at time displayed on his phone. Where was Erza?

It wasn't like her to be late.

"Gray!"

Gray turned his head to see Loke running up towards him. "Loke? Aren't you supposed to be at your part time job by now?"

"I said I was running late. Gray, I need your help."

Loke was being serious? "What?"

"I asked Lucy out on a date."

Gray's eyes widened. "You did? So she said yes?" This was definitely surprising. Lucy never took of any Loke's advances seriously as far as he knew.

Loke nodded.

"Oh, I didn't think you had it in you. I mean, Lucy isn't like most –" Gray paused, noting that Loke did not look as happy as he thought. Wouldn't he be bragging now? Loke had aimed to date Lucy ever since she transferred. "- This isn't a congratulating moment?"

"She had…conditions."

Now this was interesting. From first glance, Gray could tell Lucy was very high class. It shouldn't be surprising if she had some conditions. He didn't know all that much about her. Natsu knew about her more than he did. But then again, Loke was high class too. "What conditions?"

"She'll only go, if it's a double date."

"Makes sense. You've always been making her uncomfortable," Loke tried to protest but Gray wouldn't let him, "let alone if you guys were on a date alone. Just ask anyone. Freed maybe. Or Cana. Cana's friends with Lucy, right? Though I don't know who the hell her current boyfriend is."

"It's gotta be Erza."

"What?! Erza doesn't have a –"

" _You're_ the boyfriend, dumbass!"

Oh. Right.

"Wait, wait. You want me to ask Erza out on a double date?!"

"Yeah!"

"Just so you can date Lucy?!"

"Why not?! There's no harm done! This is my chance to get her to like me! You…don't have a problem if I date Lucy, right?" Loke asked curiously.

Gray scoffed. Was Loke trying to imply something? "Why would I? I'm not her dad."

"Good. I mean, you're still friends with her and all."

"Yeah, well, on her first day she hung around the flame freak a lot so it'd be weird if I didn't try to talk – WAIT A MINUTE! I can't ask Erza out on a date!" Gray panicked. "Especially if the date is with Lucy!"

"Why not? You've been fake dating this whole –"

"That's just it. We haven't been really fake dating. So pretending in front of Lucy is gonna be hard."

"You haven't? Then what have you been doing the past few days!"

Gray sighed. "We haven't done anything…couple-like besides hand holding and eating out together. At school it's easier to fool people. They can think maybe Gray's new 'girlfriend' isn't into PDA. And when I treat her to cake we don't do anything but eat and discuss…homework." Gray finished off lamely.

Loke couldn't help but burst out laughing. Gray gritted his teeth. "How can anyone not be suspicious of your relationship? The kids at our school are more stupid than I thought."

"The rumor is that Erza's the one who likes me. So they probably think the reason Gray isn't 'snogging' the Erza is because he's not interested in her." Maybe that could be why his fangirls weren't as persistent. They could be thinking it would be any moment now that Gray would "break up" with Erza, since he didn't treat her like he would his past girlfriends. That was a given, since they were faking it and Erza's his friend, sort of.

"That's the rumor, but we all know it's YOU who has an itty bitty crush on Erza, right?"

"NO!"

"Fine, you _had_ an itty bitty crush on Erza." Loke smirked teasingly.

"Yeah-I mean NO! Stop talking about that!"

"Gray."

Both Gray and Loke jumped at the sudden presence of Erza Scarlet. Gray almost shrieked, "Erza!" He laughed nervously. "You're um...here."

Erza raised an eyebrow at his jumpiness. "Sorry, I had some things to settle. Loke." The redhead acknowledged him with a nod. "You're not at your part time job?"

"Even you know about it, Erza?" Loke smiled before he gave a pleading look at Gray, reminding him of his request. "Well I'll leave you two love birds alone. Bye~" He said before giving a friendly wink at Erza, irritating Gray.

"Love birds? I thought you said Loke knew about the faking thing." Erza turned to Gray, whose irritated look became even more apparent, remembering the conversation they had before Erza showed up.

"He does. He's just messing with us." Gray gritted his teeth.

Erza hid a smile.

* * *

"Here's your change. Thank you for coming!" The cheerful girl at the ice cream stand smiled as she handed the change to Gray.

Erza glowed as she took the strawberry ice-cream from Gray. "This looks delicious!"

"It's the best ice-cream stand in town." Gray couldn't help but smile at Erza's eagerness and childlike happiness. There was a swell of joy bubbling in his chest.

The redhead licked the cream and couldn't help but sigh. She really was weak when it came to sweet things. And this ice cream had the right amount of sweet that she loved.

"You must be very lucky your boyfriend loves you very much!" The ice cream seller couldn't help but interrupt at their loving atmosphere.

Well, loving atmosphere according to the nosy cashier that is.

Gray was about to deny the claim, feeling his cheeks strangely warm but Erza was quicker. "Yes! I'm very happy!" Erza smiled at what looked like to be a genuine smile.

Gray gaped at her.

"You two are so cute!" This _annoying_ girl said again.

"We are?" Gray and Erza both responded simultaneously. They looked at each other in slight surprise.

"Plus, your boyfriend is really handsome! I'm so jealous!"

Gray scratched the back of his neck uneasily. He usually thrived in pride at comments like this, but with Erza around, it was just awkward for some reason.

But the raven-haired boy was once again surprised when Erza opened her mouth. "He is handsome, isn't he? He's also the star basketball player at our school!" Erza said proudly, patting his chest.

Gray couldn't help but blush at Erza's words. And the fact that her hands were on his chest.

 _He is handsome, isn't he?_

"We should go now. It's getting late." Gray hurriedly dragged Erza away from the ice cream stand.

"What was that?" Gray finally asked after a few minutes of walking in silence. Both of them had finished their ice cream and were heading back to the dorms.

"What?"

"What you said...to that ice cream girl." She wasn't going to make him repeat it, was she? "We're not really a couple."

"I'm your pretend girlfriend for two weeks remember?" Erza reminded him.

"Yeah, but that's supposed to be just at school. You didn't have to take it far even to outsiders."

 _They're not outsiders,_ Erza thought frowning.

"Erza?"

"I'm just polishing my acting skills. How was I?"

 _You're acting a bit too well_ , Gray thought. What the heck was he feeling all disappointed about? Of course she was just faking it when she called him handsome.

He couldn't believe he was happy about that. Girls called him handsome and cool all the time when he walked pass them in the hallways. It was natural. What was he being so giddy for? He pushed down his disappointment.

"Well?"

"You were good." Was all he said.

"I think I'm getting the hang of this acting thing."

Suddenly Gray remembered what he initially was going to talk to Erza about. Where did this rush of courage come from? He blurted it out, before his courage could die on him. "Then, you wanna act some more?"

"What?"

"Let's go on a double date." Gray said. That came out more smoothly than he expected. He didn't have anything to lose anyway, right?

"Double date? Why? With who?"

She didn't look like she was going to reject the idea of a double date, Gray thought. He sighed as he explained Loke's request, Erza crossing her arms during his explanation.

"I see. Does he really like Lucy?"

Gray scratched his chin nervously. It was a habit of his that hadn't changed, Erza noticed. "Well, I think so? I mean, he's been talking to me about ditching his attempts to woo other girls if Lucy gave him a chance...or something like that." He honestly wasn't sure how serious Loke was in trying to woo Lucy.

For his friend, he could try help out a little. "Lucy's not interested in anyone else, right?"

"That's not something you should be asking me."

"So you don't know?"

No, Erza didn't. Lucy had become a close friend of hers, but rarely did they - what's the word - gossip...about romance, admirers etc.

The first time they had a conversation close to that subject, was when Lucy asked about _Jellal_. And _that_ conversation was dropped quickly after Erza clearly said not to ask. Erza wondered if she had made it hard for Lucy to talk to her.

"Even if I did, there's no way I'm talking to you about it." Erza finally responded.

Gray smirked. He felt like he had just won a mini battle. "Fair enough."

Erza quickly changed the topic. "So, where and when's the double date?"

"Uh...the amusement park?"

"Amusement park?!" Erza turned to him and amidst her excitement; she grabbed onto the collar of his uniform and was up in his face "Can we really go? Are you sure? You better not be messing with me." Her tone quickly changed to a dark one that sent a chill down his spine.

Gray almost felt relieved _. This_ was Erza Scarlet.

"Loke's the one who planned it. He probably has tickets so uh-HEY! OW! ERZA!" The raven-haired boy struggled against her hold.

Erza snapped out of her daze and let go. "Sorry, I got a little too excited." At the thought of free amusement park tickets, that is.

 _You're still too strong for your own good_ , Gray thought annoyed. He cleared his throat and added, "So you'll go right?"

"Why wouldn't I?"

"I-It's just...I thought you wouldn't bother. I mean, when the others," Erza knew he was referring to Cana and Mirajane,"asked you to hang with us, you'd...reject us..." Gray trailed.

A moment of silence passed between the two of them, the only sound that was heard was the passing of cars on the roads on the street the two walked on.

Gray mentally kicked himself. Why did he mention that? It would only remind them of their awkward time as not-so friends. He was sure that the only reason she didn't hang out with them anymore was because she didn't know how to deal with him, as much as he didn't know how to approach her.

"It's different now."

Gray hadn't realized he dropped his gaze to the ground, but when he looked back up to her, Erza had on a small smile, almost reminiscent.

Maybe he was just crazy, but he thought her smile was almost a little radiant.

* * *

Lucy was flipping through the pages of a magazine right after dinner. She glanced up at the clock on the wall, noting that Erza still hadn't come back yet.

 _Tomorrow, I'll find out for sure!_

The blond girl had already picked out what she wanted to wear for tomorrow's double date. She was still quite excited, to have fun with her friends, especially Erza. There was nervousness as she would be on an actual date for the first time, not to mention the guy was Loke, the most popular guy in school.

A sigh escaped her lips.

Loke was a nice friend and all, but there was no way she could date him. Girls left and right wanted him and Lucy would be in trouble getting romantically involved with popular guys like Loke. She wasn't even involved with Gray at all on the first day and she had someone call her a rival-in-love.

This would be a one-time thing. She needed to see how Erza was like with Gray.

The sound of her ringtone stopped her thoughts. She grabbed her phone and looked to see Natsu's name on the caller ID.

This was weird. Natsu rarely called. He usually would show up in front of the girls' dorms if he wanted to talk to her, no matter how trivial.

"Hello, Natsu? What's up?"

" _Hey...uh what were you doing?"_

 _He sounds...nervous?_ "Nothing much. Just flipping through a magazine. What's wrong? You rarely call."

Lucy raised an eyebrow at the sounds of shuffling she heard from other side. "Well, tomorrow my dad's visiting for the weekend so uh-"

"Your DAD's coming over?! That's great news! I'm happy for you!" Lucy exclaimed happily. Natsu had always complained to her that his dad didn't visit as much as he used to. Lucy had tried to comfort him by saying maybe his dad was too busy. She knew her father couldn't visit because he was busy. Natsu had grumbled and said that his dad just didn't like riding on trains.

Apparently their family wasn't good with vehicles.

A sound of a cough was heard. "Y-Yeah, so...we were gonna hang out together and he...wanted me to bring a girl..."

Lucy's eyes widened. "You want me to come with you?"

"Yeah! It'll be fun! Plus, you're a girl...so-"

"-I can't! I'm sorry!" Lucy pressed her palms together in apology, even though Natsu wasn't in front of her to see it.

"...what? WHAT?!" Lucy had to hold the phone away from her ears for a bit, "I mean...uh why?"

"I have a date! So..."

"Date? With who? When? Why?"

Was it just her, or was Natsu overreacting? Lucy eyed the phone strangely as if she was eyeing Natsu. "Loke asked me out today."

"LOKE?!" Well, someone was very shocked. Not that Lucy could blame him. Lucy was pretty shocked herself, that she agreed. "Why would he ask YOU of all people?"

"Hey! I'm still pretty attractive you kno-"

"Where and when?"

Annoyance grew at Natsu's habit of interrupting her. "To that new amusement park in Onibus and I promised him I'd go tomorrow..."

"Tch..."

Lucy had a gut feeling that he was sulking. Now she felt guilty. Then she had an idea. "Oh what about you ask someone else? Maybe Lisa-"

"-Forget it."

And he hung up.

Natsu hung up on her?! _The nerve of this guy..._

Forget that. Lucy knew that Natsu wasn't the type to get mad for long.

Hopefully.

* * *

" _Have you got the picture?"_

" _Yep."_

" _What about the recording?"_

" _Rechecked. Audio is clear."_

" _Did she suspect anything?"_

" _No."_

" _Erza Scarlet won't know what hit her. What a terrible relationship. Precious Gray Fullbuster will be so disappointed."_

" _Killing two birds with one stone."_

" _Precisely."_


End file.
